That Horrible Pen

This essay contains heavy spoilers for both the original Bloodborne and the fan game in the above title . Note that there will also be some grotesque imagery and descriptions/discussions of grotesque imagery at points. A further note about the Noclip documentary for Bloodborne PSX : I watched this video, which includes pretty in-depth and frank discussion of the development of the game, back when it first came out but had forgotten its content by the time I played Bloodborne PSX for myself and started writing this essay. When I rewatched that documentary, I found that it either confirmed or denied some claims of mine. After some consideration, I’ve decided to leave what I said originally unaltered and unqualified since these are still my “thoughts,” objectively correct or not. There are some instances where I, in general, credit authorial intent to a greater or lesser degree, but my tendency is to look primarily at the text itself and work backwards based on what I find; however, it...