Bloodborne: The Veil Torn Asunder

Who is tearing these veils asunder? What is behind the veils? Who knows! Phil and Kevin wrap up the Bloodborne series of comics and put them back on the bookshelf.

Video Version

Automated Transcript

Hey everybody, welcome back to pixel ID and the last episode of blood borne. You're with me as always, my good friend Phil.

Phil  0:13
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, we're here to talk about blood borne. How are you?

Kevin Erhard  0:19
Well answering for the ladies and gentlemen, I think they're fine.

Phil  0:23
I bet they are. If they're listening to a podcast, they probably don't have too much to worry about, or unless, unless they're listening to the podcast to get away from the horrors of of their current life, in which case, I'm gonna shut up about it.

Kevin Erhard  0:40
In which case, welcome. And we hope we can we can help you out on those on that journey. Or, you know, if you're just doing chores like I that's how I listen to podcasts. Absolutely. is when I'm usually working. When I'm doing dad work around the house. That's, that's my that's my podcast time.

Phil  0:59
Yeah, that's, that's pretty much the same for me. I'm usually working.

Kevin Erhard  1:03
Boy. Um, so that's the high point of this episode. It's all downhill from here. It's gonna be a tough one. Yeah, it's gonna be a tough one. If you're a Bloodborne. Fan, if you're a Bloodborne graphic novel fan. Well, you might have tuned out after after Episode Three of Bloodborne, in which we had we had harsh words,

Phil  1:25
if you're a Bloodborne graphic novel fan, stop, stop. That's just Yelp. Just

Kevin Erhard  1:31
get some help the Michael insert the Michael Jordan gets some help get stop here.

Phil  1:39
Because

Kevin Erhard  1:42
bad this is bad.

Phil  1:44
It's so frustrating. Because if you guys need to channel back to the first couple of episodes of our Bloodborne series, it was only it only started few weeks ago. for y'all. We were excited about this. So excited. Yeah, we're actually like, oh, they're taking this and like it's in a slightly different directions, but still Bloodborne and it's got something really special going on here. That's kind of cool. And, and then then it comes to Bloodborne volume four, which I believe is called the veil. Shut the bed. So that's a you know, that tells you everything you need to know they just, you know, at least they're honest. Oh, no, that's not what it's called.

Kevin Erhard  2:32
It's called the veil wrapped around dog poop.

Phil  2:34
Yes, that's right. That's right. The puppy veil,

Kevin Erhard  2:38
the poopy veil,

Phil  2:39
the veil Oh, poop.

Kevin Erhard  2:41
And I feel like this is the meanest we've ever been. At this point. It's kind of deserved. Because for me once I forget how that goes. I mean, it's actually kind of hard. It's hard to remember because george bush screwed it up so spectacularly. I can't remember. I can't remember how it actually is supposed to go. You can't.

Phil  3:03
You can't decide the Bloodborne decider. It's just yeah. And it's frustrating. And because Kevin and I are both artists, we both work in artistic fields. That's how we met. And it's very difficult for us to really come down on someone for at least trying and for doing something and that's, that's never something we're ever going to. You know, we're not here to crush spirits.

Kevin Erhard  3:32
We don't take pleasure in it.

Phil  3:34
No, no, if anything, all I wanted was for this to be pretty kick ass because last week, we started to kind of we were starting to get into a realm that we weren't so keen on. It was feeling weird. We were not thrilled about it. But there was still time.

Kevin Erhard  3:51
There's still time.

Phil  3:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Period. There was still time. And they wasted that time. Kevin.

Kevin Erhard  4:01
They shirt certainly wasted that time. They wasted that time. The time has gone.

Phil  4:06
Oh, man. Oh, man.

Kevin Erhard  4:08
This is the last of the Bloodborne graphic novels, as far as I know. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I think we're good.

Phil  4:18
We're fine. We're fine. You know, and and, yeah, just fine. Really. I'm gonna put them up on my bookshelf next till my other graphic novels and let them sit and then in a year or two, someone will come to visit and they'll go Oh, neat. Bloodborne graphic novels. I didn't know they did that. And I'll turn and I'll suddenly look really haggard and you know, have one eye and I'll be like, you shouldn't be touching cursed things. Well, you're not just I was just kind of you. I used to love that video game. I'd like QA I thought it was like No, stay away from this person. Item Tony From the devil's bottle like, are you sure I can't? I mean, I'll give you I'll give you 10 bucks for like 10 bucks. Yeah, here you go. Good luck.

Unknown Speaker  5:12
Good luck.

Phil  5:13
Good luck Kim,

Kevin Erhard  5:14
you can actually you can still flip through them and admire the art, the actual the the art in it. That's fine.

Phil  5:22
Yes, I have nothing good. I have nothing but good thing to say about

Kevin Erhard  5:26
nothing but good thing to say about the artwork, and that's really 50% of it. But the other 50% the writing on this. We like the first one. We liked the second one. Yeah, we were hoping number three was better than it was and it wasn't. And then number four was a repeat of number three. But kind of more wormed warmed over. It's like, it's like, instead of it's like being number three was put into a microwave, and heated up, but not quite, not quite to the right temperature. Right. So like, the outside of it is hot, but the inside of it is still cold. And you're still eating it anyway, because you have no shame.

Phil  6:14
Right? Right. But then after you finished the slice, the heartburn sets in. And the more you think about it, the more you're like, Well what the fuck? I didn't need that. I wasn't that hungry.

Kevin Erhard  6:26
I wasn't even hungry. I was just bored. I was bored. I was bored.

Phil  6:29
And I said if I don't eat that slice of the pizza, then my girlfriend's gonna go in there and she's gonna say she's gonna I don't want her to have that pizza. That's my pizza. God dammit. So I put it in and it was that there was a pan pizza, which never reheats right? Nope. You know you put it in the microwave and it just becomes a goddamn brick. It's too much tomato sauce not enough cheese your stomach caught my stomach hurts. I made some bad decisions on takeout this weekend. I'm sorry. I'm a little frustrated

Kevin Erhard  7:04
just really just re litigating your your food choices.

Phil  7:08
Yeah, I'm just I'm just I'm I'm mad but for a lot of reasons.

Kevin Erhard  7:16
So let's get into why we don't like it.

Phil  7:19
let's let's let's actually explains in specifics what's explain.

Kevin Erhard  7:23
We don't have to we could just you know, stop right now and play Mario Kart for the rest of the night. But we could do

Phil  7:29
that. Just upload the audio file of us talking trash while we play Mario Kart. You guys like that? Yeah, you would like might actually make for a pretty good bonus episode. Yeah, I think that would

Kevin Erhard  7:40
be pretty good. bonus episode.

Phil  7:42
So the new Mario Golf game.

Kevin Erhard  7:45
Oh, how was that? Huh?

Phil  7:47
I haven't played it yet. But it looks good. Looks. Oh,

Kevin Erhard  7:49
yeah. It looks fine. Looks like a chill time.

Phil  7:51
Yeah, exactly.

Kevin Erhard  7:53
Speaking of not chill times, right? Ah, basically this, this book starts with our protagonists who I guess he's a protagonist. He's just kind of a dude narrating things that are happening to him.

Phil  8:12
That is exactly what I was going to say.

Kevin Erhard  8:15
Yes, yes, he may meet the definition of

Phil  8:19
man. I remember. All right, you know what, when I'm gonna get into it, I'm still I'm still I'm still gonna rant here. I remember being about 1415 years old. And it was when I first started writing fiction, like in earnest, you know? Yeah. And and like dad at a used bookstore found the classic, any writers out there know exactly what I'm talking about the Writer's Digest, you know, novel and short story publication book. And it's just one of these big fat books, they come out with them every year. And it's got all these different publications and that sort of thing. And that's just it's a resource for writers to get their stuff published. And I was so excited to know that thing existed. So I start just hammering out stories, and I'm 14 years old. And all I do is read Stephen King. Right? So it's all hard. And, and I'm writing stuff that I think is pretty brilliant. I think I'm a genius. You know, nothing's changed. And, and I and the thing that people kept writing back to me, these editors who bless their hearts, and by the way, if you're a writer, trying to get rid of, you know, trying to get published, and an editor takes the time to put ink to paper to give you personal advice on the stuff that you wrote. You thank your lucky stars, and you listen to everything they have to say, because they do not have time for that. They just don't. And I got real lucky with a couple of editors who wrote me back and said, Hey, here's the deal. And and I'm sure it's part of it's because they seen the stories from 14 year olds, and the thing they kept saying was like, we want a story where a protagonist does things not as things done to them, right. And now that I'm you know, years old, you know, and I have written some things, gotten some things published. And I know a little more about it. I totally get that. How? How is it that a writer who didn't take the advice that I got when I was 14 years old managed to get this shit published? I do not understand it. Because he, you're right. But you nailed it. He's not. I guess he's a protagonist in the sense that he's our main character, but he doesn't do much things are done to him,

Kevin Erhard  10:30
right? Yeah, he's basically if Nick Carraway you with, which is a Great Gatsby reference if you're eager Nick caraway who were literary man, who is probably one of the more famous passive protagonists in, in literature, if Nick caraway was dumped in yharnam and decided to kick commit double homicide after a threesome, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here

Phil  11:00
we are, we are you know, what the fuck it let's just go Alright, so

Kevin Erhard  11:04
yes, gonna do it. So basically, this guy is a scholar, I assume he's in a library. He's reading. But he's also having these flashbacks. And forwards. I think that's part of it is that there is no clear delineation as to when time is, which is fine. Once and we had that already. We had the flat table thing with the Eileen, the crow thing where it was time is a flat circle, whatever, you get away with that once you can do that arc once, in a larger setting. You do it once and you get it out of the way. And even in recollection, this made me feel that the island The crow story was brilliant in comparison.

Phil  11:50
Oh my god, I'm so glad you said that. Because I totally agree. Like I feel like I was like maybe I was too harsh.

Kevin Erhard  11:58
I in in volume three. I'm like, man, I was too harsh because this this is nonsense. This is nonsense. This is Oh, this has very little connection to it feels very disconnected from Bloodborne itself.

Phil  12:15
It I haven't.

Kevin Erhard  12:17
I have a feeling I know possibly. Which character this might be. But if it is that character is a character that has is of such a minor importance to the game. And I believe they are found in the DLC. And there. Oh, wow. They are not the main purpose of the DLC, they are just and you can miss them. I think I have a feeling I know who it is. But choice It is a very, very specific wow person. So basically, the first issue is kind of these looping memories of IR guy. He's been on a battlefields. He's not from yharnam originally,

Phil  13:04
he's got he's got this kind of cone in quality of like, he's up. he's a he's a scholar. He's a soldier. He's an adventurer, He's a thief. He's boring. Um, you know, except Conan's. Boring. Right? It's Yeah, he's lived this big life.

Kevin Erhard  13:23
Yes, he's lived this big life he's gone to he's he's a I'm not even sure what his motivation is. And I feel like there is part of it is almost a little when I say it's almost a little insulting because it's, it's relying on tropes of mental illness that I find a little uncomfortable. You know, there are some, it's never outwardly said because obviously, this isn't something that would be found, that wouldn't be discussed necessarily, in Bloodborne itself, and a lot of Bloodborne and Lovecraft and all that stuff has, it's not even subtext, it's the text is losing your mind, right? There's a difference between losing your mind be from the exposure of eldritch horror, to trying to tell a story and not doing it very well. Or very, I want to say cautiously or in a way that takes the matter seriously, because the guy has displays the tropes of like schizophrenia, right? In one One moment. He's and I'm not even saying that these are these this is how what schizophrenia is. I'm just saying it's the way the media has portrayed it. Yeah. And it makes me feel very made me feel kind of uncomfortable when I'm looking at it. Because at one point the guy is like, normal and then he's like, grinning wildly, and he has the his razor blade up to his own throat.

Phil  14:58
Yeah. apropos of nothing And let's you know let's let's go through the motions just before being real sure. Just so that people know exactly what we're talking about. So this this this guy, he starts out in a library you know, we don't know what he's looking up exactly. He flashes back or forward to a war zone. He appears to be the only survivor flashes back or forward to him falling asleep he's woken up in the library. I guess he dreamt about the the the death and the mayhem maybe maybe experience that maybe he didn't. He makes eyes at a young lady and a young man both in a bar which Whoo, good for you. Yep. We it picks a little love. Are bisexuals. Good for you? Good for you. Hey, it cuts forward or backward? I don't know. To him in an old fashion. I did dig this. And old fashioned scuba, you know, the big Yeah, yeah, thing. Yeah. And he is going down down under the ocean and he finds where appears to be some sort of tear in reality with some sort of face. You know, peeking out from behind.

Kevin Erhard  16:09
It's a literal veil torn us on Yes.

Phil  16:11
Yes. Yeah, there you go. It cuts to him back somewhere. And I had a happy happy looking sink. I don't know what a happy looking sick looks like. But this is it. It's about looking sink. Exactly. And, and he's he's thinking about some fortune teller giving him a fortune, as you would say. Thinking about you know, he's he's shaving himself slowly. You get the little kind of a little tension of the razor close to his throat. He goes back to the bedroom where the young man and the young woman who is making eyes out in the bar are nude. Which is just scandal and scandal and then he goes out for another evening walk we've got some more chained up coffins always love it. And, and he's just grinning like a madman at the buildings which all seem to have faces. Yep. staring out at him. And then and and it cuts back to him in the bathroom considering maybe maybe maybe he's gonna cut his throat I don't know. And then he's back on the street being accosted by a horrible long legged, monstrous look down thing in a hooded robe. carrying a bag over it's over children with God only knows what

Kevin Erhard  17:42
and those Yeah, the bag is filled with other bodies. Oh, good. That's that's something called a snatcher.

Phil  17:49
Okay, so that's, that's, that's straight out. I should have guessed. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard  17:53
Running into I believe it's called a snatcher. Basically running into one of those. You if you let one of them. It's actually kind of neat. Because it was a it's like a secret. It's a hidden area. It's it's a place that you end up going to in the game regardless. But you can get there earlier if you run into one of these guys, and let them kill you. Basically, if you let them kill you, the idea is that they put your body into that bag. And when you wake up next, you're somewhere completely different.

Phil  18:28
Oh, okay. Okay. So pretty cool. Yeah, it's

Kevin Erhard  18:32
pretty cool. And that's what this that's what kind of what it references at the beginning of the next issue, I think. Right?

Phil  18:41
It's I think it's a section. There's a big symbol that comes up, but I don't think it's the end of the

Kevin Erhard  18:46
Yeah, I'm not sure if it's the end of the issue myself.

Phil  18:50
But yeah, and by the way, but real quick. Yeah, by the way, you you listeners might be thinking, Okay, you guys are tearing through these actions that are happening. Well, what is he talking about? or thinking about? while this is happening? To which I might answer? Nothing? Nothing. It's meaningless. There are words. There are certainly words. They're in English. They are in English. They are. They are they are competently spelled.

Kevin Erhard  19:23
Yep. Some of them are complete sentences.

Phil  19:27
Yes. Some of them. Yeah. And it's just him talking about the truth in the thing that's inside of him. And this is vague sense of madness that you get from somebody who's never actually read HP Lovecraft, who really wasn't that good of a writer to begin with. Let's face facts. Yep. And, and they, but they've heard people talk about what Lovecraft is supposed to. It's like, third generation lovecraftian. Nonsense. Yeah, but he's kind of babbling

Kevin Erhard  19:59
right. I heard Lovecraft once right heard, I heard somebody talk about Lovecraft once is kind of what the vibe of the title.

Phil  20:09
Right, right. And and and that's the gist you're getting here while he's, he's flashing backwards and forwards, head on the same way that we saw in volume three.

Kevin Erhard  20:20
And volume three had the and now I'm in retrospect, pumping up volume three because volume three had the core subtext of there is a real wound at the heart of the character that has to do with losing somebody that she cherished deeply.

Phil  20:43
Right, there was a single thing that was flashing thing that it's

Kevin Erhard  20:47
that it's all circling around. This is not circling around any one thing, it's circling around a dozen things,

Phil  20:55
which which could work if you're writing a novel maybe, right, if you were writing a novel, and you had pages upon pages to work with lots of lots of lots of room to play, and you were a competent writer, then maybe you could make that work, right. But that many thing in a brief graphic novel with this kind of kind of weak narration is just frustrating.

Kevin Erhard  21:20
Yeah. So he wakes up after being captured by the snatcher naked, and in a completely different part of town. And there is a low red moon hanging in the sky, which we have seen that motif several times already to kind of signify that it is something has changed in yharnam. And it kind of puts this in a time and place, so to speak, than all the other stories ultimately end up in is this time around the arrival of this red moon, and yharnam, which is fine. That gives it some sort of cohesion with the rest of the stories, but it doesn't have any internal logic or cohesion. Because we continue to flash backward and forward to schemes that we've already seen sort of like the guy falling asleep on top of the book at the library. And things subtly change in each of the scenes, which makes sense. And as an end could be could have been a nice touch by it could have been a nice touch with more meat on the narration that actually gave us some understanding of what the character is going through. Other than the truth is the truth and the truth is reality and etc, etc. Just stringing these quote unquote, deep words together because Ronnie, we cut back to his bedroom, and now the couple is dead. He killed them. It looks like with his razor.

Phil  22:58
We Yeah, we haven't been given the full extent of it. But you can see him in the background splattered and all that stuff and right you the writing's on the wall, you get the impression, you know, you get the gist, you don't. And if this was meant to be a surprise at that, if this is meant to be a surprise for later, if this person assumed that people wouldn't notice them. It's kind of an insult, but I'm going to share I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt. Yep. And we all know what what that all means.

Kevin Erhard  23:26
Yes. Witnesses a battle between two giant beasts. The significance of which for I'm not sure what these two if these two are supposed to be supposed to be significant in this moment to the story. I know which two bosses these are. The one on the left is dark beast, parle. And the one on the right is called the one reborn.

Phil  23:57
Okay? They pretty kick ass monsters.

Kevin Erhard  24:00
They're pretty. Yeah, they're pretty kick ass monsters, they really don't have much to do. lore wise, I don't think they have much to do with each other, other than geography you encounter both in the same general vicinity. But I don't think there's any real reason. There's no reason for the two of them to be fighting. If that makes sense. There's no connection between these two monsters other than they're at either end of the area, if I'm recalling correctly from the game there at either end of the area that he has walked but he has woken up in

Phil  24:39
Yeah, and and, and I'll tell you what, the significance to me. That wasn't lost on on me. I think this kind of tells you a little bit about everything that is sort of wrong with this volume. And it's goes back to what I was talking about for our protagonist witnesses. These colors. colossal kick ass beings fighting just going into battle once through and fire the other one one's biting the other one. It's like It's like a goddamn, you know spray paint collage you'd see on the side of metal kids van. Yeah, you know, it's bad stuff. It's really cool. You know, Lamb of God should be playing in the background. It's fantastic. You know, and and he starts thinking back to the dead bodies on the Warzone and the horrible face under the ocean that he saw. And he starts basically having a vision of himself burning up watching these, this battle take place see slowly as is being consumed by the flames because the veil is being torn asunder apparently. And it nothing. He's not doing anything, right. He's not doing anything things are happening to him. Right. And it's, and that's the end and i and i know some of y'all are gonna listen. And some of you might think like, this is some serious like, bullshit, you know, freshman English stuff you're throwing down on me. You know, what if I like this? What if I'm good with this? If you like this fucking awesome, man, that's good for you. I'm glad you're enjoying it. But the fact of the matter is, is a lot of people could see this. And they might feel a little left a little hollow. When they see a scene like this in a comic, or in a movie or something like that, and they don't know why they aren't enjoying it more than they should. And that's why we like to analyze this stuff because it gives you an idea. And that's why if you watched this, and you're like, this should be kicking more ass. Why doesn't this kick more ass? Like this is solid c plus b minus work? Why? But I should be loving this. Why am I loving this? The answer is probably because our protagonist, who we should be rooting for everything is doing nothing. While it's all happening.

Kevin Erhard  27:01
There's no sense of stakes or urgency or anything. The protagonist isn't doing anything. And we also don't have any real thematic connection between what he is saying what we are seeing, and the thrust of the plot.

Phil  27:21
Right? We don't know why this is happening because it's all just vague. You know, the truth swell is the truth swallows the truth. Yeah, truth forever devoured. Like this isn't Dante, man. Right? Like this is this is you can you can do better than this. Like this is this is frustrating, because we know for a fact that the author can tell a cohesive story. Exactly. seen him do it. Yep. If this was Volume One, then we might go Oh, we're in for a lot of fun of this. This is going to be garbage. Right all the way through. Right? We've seen this guy do good stories, the first two volumes. I genuinely really, really enjoyed. Yep. And that's my proof to show that I'm not just here to be a hater and shit on somebody. You know, it's like, right. I think the first time I ever used the expression be a hater. But it's like, just nothing happens. Our protagonist stands there in the nude and and, and is devoured by flame while this fight happens, and then suddenly, he's back in the bathroom. He's back in the bedroom. He's reading one of the you know, esoteric texts. Yeah, that characters like this reading these things. And then suddenly we get a backup. And we realize that he has, he has murdered the his his bisexual friends there. Yep. And, and he has this, you know, moment there of realization. Yeah. Next, minus Face the Truth of My situation, which you know what? That's pretty good. Actually,

Kevin Erhard  28:58
that's a good line. That's a good line, I think head I can see a way that this story is better. I can pull aside the veil of what it is. And I can see a better version of this, where we, because we have to connect with the protagonist in some way. Right? There. There is something that has to draw a line, even if it's just a faint dotted line between the audience and the protagonist in order to really follow them through the the plots because plot is plot who cares about plot, it's all about character. And if you're not with the characters, if there's not if you're not, if you don't, and even if it's a villain, you still have to do something. If you're telling something from an anti hero or villains point of view, you still have to you know, you still kind of wish pull you pull for Tony mana. Tanna, you know what, like, right like you pull for for furlough don't actively pull for everything. If you don't actively pull for them, you're still invested. And that's exactly the word I'm looking for serious still invested in, you're engaged they are, and what their journey is, you're not invested in the plot, you're invested in their journey. And you never actually know who this person is. So there's never a chance to become invested in again, more perfect version of the story not more perfect, because that's, that's bullshit. No stories ever. say there was a better version, in a cuter version, a bigger version of this story. You become familiar with who this person is, and you're drawn into them, right? You're drawn into and invested in the character, the his realization, his his, the realization that he has to confront the truth of his situation should also be the audience's realization that he must confront the truth of his situation.

Phil  31:01
He's telling you a lot of what he needs to do, right?

Kevin Erhard  31:04
He's telling you that he needs to do it, you're not realizing it with him. Right? You're not

Phil  31:11
you're not because you don't know anything about it. We've also this is basically the story of some guy slipping into mandus, which, you know, one, classic storyline. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. You know, yeah, but and we've seen it in this very series before, with the with the Volume Two scientist, and absolutely, and we got to know them. And we got to know little things about them. Women that one guy has crushed has a crush on, you know, a little bit about their background, just just little bits, just little moments that make us go, Okay, I know who you are. You know, there are authors that definitely overdo that, you know, Stephen King, if he wasn't so obsessed with that? It could have been, you know, three or 400 pages long. Yeah, but you know it, but it's, it's something and we're not getting any of that we're getting little glimpses of his past. Like, I guess he was in a war, you know, but nothing and I guess he likes to fuck. Yep. You know, but all of his dialogue, and I think you know, what, I think would have made this better, Kevin. Hmm. Another character? Yeah. Like a single other person for him to talk to? Yeah, like, just to just to relate with as a human being right, that that I think might have fixed a lot of problems. I don't know if it would have been a great storyline, but but it would have fixed a lot of problem because

Kevin Erhard  32:32
right now, the story is being entirely told through a disembodied voice, basically, you know, it's being told it's good fellow rules. You know?

Phil  32:46
I were really I think there's a word I think there's a single Okay, no, I was wrong. I'm sure there are there are like a handful of word bubbles in this. Yeah, less than 10.

Kevin Erhard  32:57
Right. Yeah, everything else is his inner monologue. He's Garfield, he's Garfield. Yeah, there is there's a brief interaction with Eileen The crow out in the middle of the woods, similar to the interaction she had in the previous ish the previous arc.

Phil  33:17
Right. Well, actually, then I think that is interesting. You know, you figure the author probably knew this is his last storyline on this particular book. Because he starts to interact with previous moments. right a lot. You know, he's watching we he joins the werewolf be in crucified moment that we saw on the first volume? Yep. And the what was the, I think was the he's on the bridge nude again. He's nude. He's just constantly nude naked a lot. Yeah. And he's wanted he's in the city. yharnam on the bridge, where he's watching another fight happen.

Kevin Erhard  33:57
Yeah, fighting the fight with the cleric, Beast.

Phil  34:00
Yes, yes. And just witnessing all this. He witnesses. He's Mark from rent, and Mark from rent is the worst. And the only people who don't think so are 14 to 17 year old, soon to be theater majors. And 14 to 17 year old soon to be theater majors are the worst.

Kevin Erhard  34:26
You were a theater theater major. Were you not?

Phil  34:28
I was I was a theater. And I liked mark. So I'm coming from I'm coming at your real I'm, I'm the former like drug dealer who comes to your elementary school and tells you about how you know, the only people who like dope are dopes like I'm that guy.

Kevin Erhard  34:47
They're coming back very coming at it with a good with a nice level of self self loathing.

Phil  34:52
Exactly. Just enough so yeah. And that brings us to what you were talking about before with him nude in the forest. Interacting with Eileen The Crow, and it's this kind of his only actual speaking moment when he asked Eileen if she can see him. Yeah. And I actually, and this is actually pretty good. And it's frustrating to me, because it's not bad. He's ask Eileen if if she can see and she says I can see shape, right? Is it you? I guess assuming maybe that this is the brother that she was referencing now? Yeah, yeah. And he says, I'm a traveler. And she says, aren't we all does the herme thing, which is straight out of watchmen? that's a that's a Rorschach reference of a very someone. Yeah. And then then seems to sense that the forest is burning, even though it isn't and asks him What have you done? Which is looking cool. Yeah. That's good. Like, it's a thing.

Kevin Erhard  36:06
It's a nice chilling. What? What have you done is one of my favorite rock use line lines that you can say to somebody?

Phil  36:17
Absolutely. That's so good. What have you done? Yeah. Like that's, that's that's just that's,

Unknown Speaker  36:23
it's so loaded. Yes.

Phil  36:26
It's not it's not have you done something? It's it's not is Do you have something you want to tell me? It's I know you've done so what have you done? Oh, it's a good line. And and it's kind of wasted. And, and then he's back to the city and the city's in flames. And we're meant to believe I suppose that he's somehow responsible for it.

Kevin Erhard  36:50
Yeah. We're somehow Yeah, we're, he's supposed to be responsible for it. I guess we get into the next, like, chapter. And he's witnessing the scene from the first.

Phil  37:08
Yes, first volume one and volume

Kevin Erhard  37:10
one where the hunter is taking fish boy. Oh, fish.

Phil  37:16
Boy. I miss you. I

Kevin Erhard  37:18
miss you.

Phil  37:19
You didn't know what we didn't know what we had with your fish. It was

Kevin Erhard  37:23
a simpler time. It was the exact moment where the fish child now navigates the hunter around the amygdala monster. Yes. Great moment. It's a great moment. And the fish boy sees our traveler dude in the background. And then he disappears again. And now he is in a classic padded room.

Phil  37:50
Yeah, classic straight jacket padded room stains. The whole nine yards. Yep. And and he's just, it's just Yeah, he's backing up. Back in though he's in the loony bin. What a wild should we call it? Why why we should we call it anything else?

Kevin Erhard  38:05
Yeah. Yeah. And I believe this is a reference. This is where I think he's the character that I think he is. I didn't bother looking looking it up. But because there is a moment where you do cross through what appears to be like an old school Insane Asylum, you're you basically are cutting through it, you're not, you're not really staying there. It's, it's like a set piece that you kind of cut through between after a boss fight. So yeah, he starts having more visions, while he's in this padded room. He sees the corpses of fallen soldiers piled up so high that they form the emblem of a of two weeping women that happened to be matched the emblem of that is on a door, I believe out front of the building. And, you know, we just we have more of the there's more of the thought bubbles, but they're, they don't shed any more light than what we have already said. Because it's stuff like what would you need to hear from me? What purpose would it serve? am I helping you not to see me? Is this why you came to me to avoid it all? The same way I ran away in my adventures.

Phil  39:26
And oh, and then and then we get the greatest part, the greatest, least self aware moments in the entire volume, because it's accompanied by a pretty amazing piece of art. He's supposedly, I guess, in the sewer somewhere. Yeah. Where the old blood first came to the people of the city. And he says, Do you want to know about the great old ones whose blood began at all? Do you want me to tell you a story? Yes, yes,

Kevin Erhard  39:54
yes. Yes, we do.

Phil  39:56
Tell a story. That's a novel. I Oh my god. How How? How we're fucking on self-aware

Kevin Erhard  40:08
85% of the way through this story and it now it's Do you want to hear a story? I'm like, yeah, we can't get on page one.

Phil  40:19
Yes. Sweet. That's why I bought this. I wanted a story. Yeah, call me a child. I thought maybe a story would be interesting. I don't know. I didn't realize that you had a treat CS prepared for madness written as written by someone who's only ever heard of madness in episodes of are you afraid of the dark?

Kevin Erhard  40:43
But and then it's like a there's like a middle finger to the reader on the next page where it says a simple story that satisfies you. Or like you

Phil  41:01
a story of a man gone insane by the traumas he incurred. That sounds fun. Sure, sure. But you know, you know, stories have beginnings, middles and ends. They have plotlines. They This is just and he's dead. I guess now he's drinking the blood of the old gods.

Kevin Erhard  41:15
Yeah. Kinda like hints that, you know, maybe he was the person who found the old blood first. Hmm, maybe? I don't know. I think that makes maybe that makes him Lawrence. I'm not sure that that's the thing.

Phil  41:31
Tell me just in case Tell me who that is. Let's just in case

Kevin Erhard  41:35
I'm dusting off some memories learns was a scholar of Bergen worth. who believed that the old blood could be I'm probably get, like half remembering this because it all ends up running together. Eventually. I believe he was a scholar of Bergen worth who believed that the old blood could be used heal. And then he split off and formed the Healing Church. Maybe okay. But I'm not sure that would make this him. I don't know. It's, it's it's out there. I would have to dig through the blood borne lore. That being said, it shouldn't matter. You shouldn't have to in order to enjoy this story.

Phil  42:22
No, no. It Yeah. And it brings us to we get we get a classic shining moment of like, is it if the ghost isn't real than how did it unlock the door? Basically, he's in his straitjacket. And they, you know, did soldier from all of the moments he's been picturing in his mind of the Warzone. He's been a part of basically unties him from the straight jacket. Yep. And he wanders through a mental house that is just filled with dead body everyone. The only survivor Yeah, everyone's dead. And he makes his way out to the city, which is on fire up, pokes his own eyeballs out with his fingers. Yep. And asks us if we are entertained. And I think it's clear on that what our answer is on that. And our final shot is the face that had peered out from him. Underwater at the veil is basically a part of the flames that are consuming the city. Yeah. That is Bloodborne the veil comma torn asunder?

Kevin Erhard  43:30
Yeah. Yeah, and

Phil  43:31
Okay, so Okay.

Kevin Erhard  43:37
Um, yeah, that happened is

Phil  43:41
this is this is you know what, you know, who I feel really bad for Kevin?

Kevin Erhard  43:48
The artist?

Phil  43:49
The artist? Yes. Yes. Thank you. You see, you get it. This is why we're doing the show together. You fucking get it. Yes, that's a medium in my mind when I was like, This is such good work. He's such a good artist. He has wonderful sense of like action moments. He can make a landscape a city scape monsters. Everything is this artist is fucking nailing it. And, and, and, and it's like, it's like, if you're in a play, and you're, you know, and you're in and you're in a duo, you know, like, yeah, you're playing two characters. You're you're playing one character. This other guy's playing another character. And you go home and you study your lines. You study your choreography and you fucking come in every day ready to go and he comes in stinking of Jagermeister maybe he gets a quarter of his lines. And the fact that you're actually trying Yeah, almost makes the entire performance look worse because it's that stilted Yep. That's what it's so frustrating. Yes, this guy is good.

Kevin Erhard  44:57
It's he's you know, in Film terms I would say it's I think Tim Burton is wildly overrated. Sure. It's basically Beau Welsh, who is his production designer who is basically responsible for the quote unquote Tim Burton aesthetic as we know it.

Phil  45:17
Oh, now that's fascinating. I did

Kevin Erhard  45:19
not go well. She is Tim burns production designer and he's been the production designer since forever. He's he's been working with with Tim Burton forever. I don't know if he's still working with them. But But well, she's the one who actually create like, turns Tim Burton's ideas into reality for film purposes. Right. So it's like, oh, well, who is basically knocking it out of the park every Tim Burton movie because that's the one thing is the Tim Burton movies. Never skimp on the production design. Absolutely not. But then it's Tim Burton. And he casts you know it because Tim Burton he cast Johnny Depp in a wildly miscast role, and you have to just live it.

Phil  46:02
You have to deal because that's what he does. And that's just it. It's like, and I think it's extra frustrating. Because as we pointed out before, we know this writer can write Yeah, we do. It's it's like it's like it's like when your dad like pulls the whole like, I'm not mad at you. I'm disappointed. Yeah, like if we if we started this you and I be able to go we'd be able to go through all the volumes and go out what we know the writer fucking sucks but at least you know, we're up front. This Ranger does as a writer if for whatever reason you're listening to our you know, show

Kevin Erhard  46:36
that I hope not

Phil  46:36
we I hope not at this point. Good lord. I I'm gonna say for certain I don't think you're a shitty writer. I think that something Something happened with this, this series that he just lost. He ran out of steam. Yeah, he wasn't ready. Because as you pointed out already, the stories have less and less to do with Bloodborne as they go on. Yeah. You know, this could have been just any this this might as well have been a short story. You know, some measly short story that the problem is we wouldn't have gotten sold otherwise, right? You know, this by itself without the Bloodborne franchise to back it up. You couldn't assault this, no one would have read this. No one would give a shit.

Kevin Erhard  47:21
It's It's It's love. It's diet Lovecraft.

Phil  47:25
Right? It's, it's written by it just sounds like a storyline of somebody who has heard of Lovecraft from a friend but not never actually read it or something like that. It's like, I've read books that were based on Lovecraft. And I read fanfiction. No and I that I read fanfiction that was based on books that were based on Lovecraft. And I took that to be Lovecraft. Because you know what? I'm just gonna say it. I'm gonna say it now. And if y'all need to, you know, revoke My Geek card, or come at me or something like that. Bring it nerds. But none of you really like love craft. Like there's like there's like a, there's like a handful of you who actually enjoy love craft. I like aspects of love craft, because I'm a monster guy and love craft made some kick ass monsters. Let's face fat. Right? But have you read love craft? It's

Kevin Erhard  48:20
painful. Yeah, if I'm gonna be honest, I've tried and quit several times.

Phil  48:25
Yes. And and we are lucky enough to live in a world where there are some really great artists Yeah, who have taken the better parts of love craft because those parts do exist and taking the bitter aspects of it and chicken and interpreted the words and the world that he was trying to make. And they took that those that they have to say, writing of that man, out of our plebeian hands, and, you know, or plebeian or whatever you want to say, you know, and and said here, let me make something that's a little more digestible and interesting. And that's how we get Bloodborne that's how we get Darkest Dungeon.

Kevin Erhard  49:03
Yeah, Darkest Dungeon, which,

Phil  49:04
absolutely, which I think might be one of the greatest lovecraftian video games ever made. It gets it. It gets the horror, it gets the you know, it's still it's still an action RPG, not an action RPG been on it? Yeah, it's it's still, it's still got monsters, because the whole point with Lovecraft is you can't win. Right? You cannot win. Yeah. And that's and that's very grim dark and it attracts certain people like it's it appears to attract or author. And so it does have aspects of like fighting in, you know, succeeding every now and then. But ultimately, you know, you're trying to take care of your sanity and your mental health and right. It's crazy. And it's really well done. And thank God we have those Yeah, game designers and writers, you know who who can more inspired but they

Kevin Erhard  49:53
can distill it down to the essence of what made it interesting and Discard literally everything else including the racism.

Phil  50:04
Right? Right. Right. And, and you know, and it's like most, so many people are like, Oh, I love HP Lovecraft and I'm gonna I can very confidently say 95% of you do not love HP Lovecraft, you have a Cthulhu plushie. And that's it. That's fine. You know what, that's fine as that is fine. Cthulhu is a fucking kick ass design. There's a reason that he's as popular as he is. There's there's something about him that's, it's a great designer. It's spooky. The cosmic horror is appealing. But this feels like, you know, this feels like someone who, God he was trying too hard or wasn't trying enough. And I can't figure out which is which? Yeah, with this guy. It's frustrating. And I know I'm going off on a tear, right? It's like, I

Kevin Erhard  50:53
appreciate the tear.

Phil  50:55
It's just so frustrating. Because it's like, were you under a deadline? Dude, probably

Kevin Erhard  51:00
wouldn't be surprised if it was, yeah, it was alright, you got to crank out 16 scripts, because that's what a total totals out to 16 scripts, right? You got to crank out 16 scripts, you know, break it out into four, four issues of four, and you got to have them you got to have them turned over to the artist and three months or something like that. Right. And it feels

Phil  51:23
it feels like he was just like, he just didn't have a plot for this last volume at all. And basically just did the weaker aspects of volume three, which want to use that I'm starting to grow and joy, more and more yet. And, and and just and because if you're if you're halfway intelligent guy, especially, let's say if you're a halfway intelligent white guy, especially, there is a level that exists in all of us on a certain level that we have to come to grips with, where we just kind of feel smarter than everybody sometimes, you know, especially if you're creative, and especially if you're like 22 right. And thankfully, some of it a lot of us grow out of it most i would i would argue most Yeah. At least at least beyond the most obnoxious blatantly you know, yeah, horrifying

Kevin Erhard  52:18
way. Almost. Almost every white man is exceedingly mediocre, and doesn't think that they are.

Phil  52:25
Right. Right. And, and, and, and if you but if you have a little bit of intelligence, I can see where you'd make a script like this because you're like, oh, if I wax poetic enough, yeah, if I get real purple with my pros and get real thrifty and dreamy and all that shit, then no one will notice but people will think I'm a genius because they don't get it. And none will dare argue that I don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Because I'm clearly I clearly have this huge mind what do they do? What's the mean with

Kevin Erhard  53:04
the galleys? univer Yeah, the galaxy brain?

Phil  53:07
Yeah, I got a galaxy brain and and, you know, and with this guy's kick ass artistry, and this franchise that's well respected and loved. backing me up. No one will fuck with me too much over this. And I'm here to say fuck you. Like going right? And I hope and I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that I'm wrong. Like I hope I don't I don't want to hurt anybody's fucking feelings, man. I don't want to you know, but but the fact of the matter is is this is not good work, right? This is not good work. It's pretentious. The artist is what a wasted Yep. on it. The monsters are wasted on it. Yep. He's got it's got almost nothing to do with Bloodborne Bloodborne at its core, I'm sorry. is about fighting big scary monsters. It it's got it's got all this lore and it's got all kinds of shit. But when you get down to it when you play Bloodborne most of your time is spent fighting big scary bots to write. And, and when you have a whole volume you have four whole issues. And all that happens with any of those big scary monsters is your protagonist watches them fight and goes oh, you fucked up. Yeah. Oh,

Kevin Erhard  54:23
yeah.

Phil  54:24
What a dire frustration. Oh my god. Yeah. What are we reading next Kevin?

Kevin Erhard  54:30
We are reading Far Cry Far Cry absolution I believe is war

Phil  54:36
crimes. I'm sure that can't be fucked up.

Kevin Erhard  54:41
absolution is based on what Far Cry five

Phil  54:44
Far Cry five which I I'm a I actually am a giant nerd for Far Cry. Yeah, in general. And I really enjoyed Far Cry five. So I'm actually really looking forward to this one.

Kevin Erhard  54:54
Yeah, I'm looking forward to forward to it too. I wonder how it's going to deal with The fact that I believe isn't Far Cry one of the games where the creators are like, Oh no, it's not political at all, or they kind of shy away from they. It's like It's like maybe

Phil  55:11
it's up. Is it Ubisoft? Ubisoft? Yeah. Yeah, then definitely like one. I don't like only

Kevin Erhard  55:17
dipping one toe into the water and being political. Like No, we're not talking about white extremists. The next

Phil  55:26
one. And the next one takes place. I think in like Mexico City. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard  55:30
And it's Giancarlo the john Carlos. Yeah, so

Phil  55:35
I gotta love that man. I love that man so much. He's such a good actor. Yeah, I'm really pumped about it. The thing for me with with Far Cry is it's Yeah, it's kind of like Grand Theft Auto with a nice squeezing of Hunter S Thompson on top of it. Like it's really drug fueled and insane. You know, but, but it's still got these kind of stupid moments and characters and jokes. And we're like, Who the fuck are you? Right? He's just Christ. But mostly, it's like just a big explodey adventure in paradise nine times out of 10. So I'm basically going to take this as an opportunity to play some more Far Cry file and when the sixth one comes,

Kevin Erhard  56:16
I really hope that I really hope it's mostly just exploding us and, and to nice action. it'll, it'll be a break. I wanted to I'm hoping it's straightforward, because I don't really have the tolerance for any more veils being torn asunder.

Phil  56:35
Let's keep those veils in one base

Kevin Erhard  56:37
veils, and one who's tearing the veils up, please, let's, you're still stealing that?

Phil  56:42
Which one? Which, which one do you do?

Kevin Erhard  56:44
It's such a, it's such a fragile material that the veils are made out of who would do that.

Phil  56:49
So when someone had someone paid good money for those,

Kevin Erhard  56:51
it's a waste. It's a waste.

Phil  56:54
But it's done. That's what's important that is done.

Kevin Erhard  56:56
So Bloodborne me Bloodborne series as a whole, what do you rate it?

Phil  57:02
Oh, man, um, it starts out, I'd say like an eight to seven and a half, and then plummets to like, three. As it goes on. Yeah. I'd say I'd say if you could evenly divide, you know, kind of do the math where it's like, even drops from a seven to a five from a five, you know, or, you know, something like that. I would say that's how it was and anything and I will, and I will not cannot give it a zero or anything like that. Simply because the artwork is just fan fucking test. Yep. And that counts for something because it's a comic book for Christ's sake. You know, so that's always there. So, yeah, I'd say. I say the first one's an eight. second one's a six. The third one's a four. And the last one is a two.

Kevin Erhard  57:56
Yeah, that's pretty much how it steps down. Yeah, yeah.

Phil  58:01
If you're, if you're a Bloodborne fan, then yeah, pick up Volume One and two. And you're probably fine after that, unless you've got a real love for Eileen The crow.

Kevin Erhard  58:11
Yeah. And or you just like collecting the entirety of this.

Phil  58:16
Yeah, yeah. If you want if you want the whole thing, I don't believe there's any intention. And based on the writing, you get the distinct impression that this is it? Yeah. I think it's just the four volumes. This last one came out last year at some point. So yeah, I think we'd have a fifth by now if there was one. But you know what, we'll keep our eyes We will keep our

Kevin Erhard  58:34
eyes peeled here at pixel it. Thank you all for listening to us ramble on about blood borne the veil torn asunder. Just as a reminder, you can follow us on Twitter at pixel it pod. And we are available on every podcast platform. So tell your friends and we do have a discord now, so please check our Twitter for more information on how to get into that. We have Phil and I are in there. Phil's on there occasionally but I'm on every now every now and then. And we have some friends on there. It's It's It's just a good time. So if you want to hang out you want more timely updates on the status of the podcast or, or what have you then consider joining our Discord. That'll do it for us today. I've been Kevin.

Phil  59:29
I've been filled and Take

Kevin Erhard  59:31
care everybody

Transcribed by https://otter.ai