The Semiotic Beast

*The Semiotic Beast*, available for download here, is a document I wrote to express my thoughts on certain key questions and ideas present in *Bloodborne*. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki gives several: in interview with *Edge Magazine*, "What is deep inside of a beast?" and "What is it like to become one?"; and in the "Drained of Blood" interview given for FuturePress' *Collector's Edition Guide*, he calls attention to "the meaning of the mind's eye and its limitations on people" and "blood and beast transformations".

This is a brief summary of the character-oriented content of *The Semiotic Beast*.

## Characters

An understanding of these themes must naturally proceed from the characters that embody them. In other words, to understand what it's like to become a beast, we should first examine characters that become beasts! A number of the Caryll Runes found throughout the game relate to beasts: Clawmark, Beast Embrace, Impurity and, of course, Beast. Clawmark is especially important to this character study because of its description:

Clawmark

*A Caryll rune that transcribes inhuman sounds.*
*The "Clawmark" is an impulse to seek the warmth of blood like a beast. It strengthens visceral attacks, one of the darker hunter techniques.*
*Although the difference is subtle, Runesmith Caryll describes the "Beast" as a horrific and unwelcome instinct deep within the hearts of men, while "Clawmark" is an alluring invitation to accept this very nature.*

Through this one description, it's clarified that Beast and Clawmark are closely related, but are distinguished by the emotional response they elicit. Whereas Beast produces a sense of horror and rejection, Clawmark instead is inviting and accepting. The true importance of these feelings to beast transformation is immense. To explain, we'll return again to the "Drained of Blood" interview, where Miyazaki discusses the design of the Cleric Beast:

> "*I, personally, have never had any really scary or paranormal experiences. I don't have any occult powers, and I definitely haven't seen any ghosts. Maybe that's part of why I “look up to” things like that, like I talked about before. I suppose I'm a little jealous of people who are scared of the dark. So the inspiration for ideas comes from somewhere a little different. For this game, for example, one theme was the “inner clash” going on within the beast-type foes.*"
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> "*The urge to transform into a beast is in conflict with the basic sense of humanity we all have. That humanity serves as a kind of shackle, keeping the transformation in its place. The stronger the shackle keeping that urge to transform in place is, the larger the recoil once that shackle is finally broken. The results cause you to transform into a larger creature, or a more twisted one. The struggle between these two urges is one concept here. You see that pretty clearly with the beast characters designed early on – especially the Cleric Beast, which serves as their icon of sorts. That connects with the idea that the cleric is really the most fearsome beast of them all.*"
> ― Hidetaka Miyazaki
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He's partially answered his own questions here: the experience of transforming into a beast is comparable to the action of a shackle, which itself is a metaphor for the two urges (emotional forces!) that struggle inside of a person. The conflict boils down to whether your human urge continues to win the "inner clash"; Beast and Clawmark describe cases in which this urge fails. The former may be obtained from two transformed characters: +20 from the Beast-possessed Soul, and +50 from the Afflicted Beggar (that is, the Abhorrent Beast). The latter's +10% form comes from a Beast Claw-wielder in Yahar'gul, and the +20% from Gilbert after transforming.

Therefore, studying these four characters should prove enlightening. We can only speak to two of them, unfortunately, so let's quickly review the two silent characters. The Beast-possessed Soul is the simplest, because its name tells you virtually everything: this character was possessed by beasthood and became its "avatar", to borrow its internal name (AvatarA). The word choice is very important, informing us that whoever this was before didn't choose beasthood! Rather, they were taken over by it.

The Beast Claw NPC in Yahar'gul is more difficult to unravel. His most notable feature is that he's bare-chested, in contrast to his fellows. Superficially, this makes him comparable to characters like Logan from *Dark Souls*, who throw away their clothes when they abandon their humanity. The core idea, then, is very intelligible at a glance, but there's another layer that contributes to his role. Thanks to /u/LastProtagonist's retranslation work, we know that the ropes worn by Yahar'gul hunters aren't merely physical defense but 呪い, a "charm, spell, or curse" as he renders it. In keeping with the ideology of the ruling School of Mensis, whose cages "restrain the will of the self", the black hunters all wear ropes as a kind of ritual binding. The Beast Claw hunter lacks these; he's given up his restraints willingly, evidenced by how intact the rest of his garb is (that is, he didn't lose anything else to explosive transformation or damage).

Gilbert's beast transformation is a sad twist of the knife that concludes his storyline, unavoidably: it's a fixed aspect of his character. His death seems to be quickly approaching after we kill Vicar Amelia and progress to the next time of night, and his desperation mounts:

> "*(coughs, sleeps, coughs) Why… me… why… Dear gods, what have I done? Save me, please… Save me… (heavy coughing)*"
> ― Gilbert, after nightfall
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Obviously his grim resignation has broken at the prospect of his own death, and now he wants to be spared his fate, so he calls out to the "gods". When they descend in the final act, he'll be spared death, but it's in exchange for his humanity.

Finally, the beggar is the most vocal case, speaking his mind as he fights us. He audaciously denies his own nature, telling us that he "didn't ask" for his current condition. Remarkably, he can even become a Celestial Emissary if sent to Iosefka's Clinic.

Recall now the runes each leaves behind: the Beast-bearers, the beggar and Beast-possessed Soul, are presented as people overcome by an uncontrollable urge that isn't true to their nature; the Clawmark-bearers are different, having begged for power or intentionally unshackled themselves. This gives us a useful structure to view beasthood in, and especially helps to answer the fundamental question posed by the director: "What is it like to become [a beast]?"

## References

* Download the full analysis @
* Thanks to the contributors [1] to bloodborne-wiki for providing reliable information to the community
* Thanks to /u/LastProtagonist for his comparative analysis [2] of the Japanese and English scripts