#i had a 8hours flight I had a bit of time XD

[fantomette22]

Thoughts on the Plain Doll (long post ahead)

« There’s a LOT to say about the plain doll but for now I will only talk about why I think she was made in the first place. What’s her original purpose ? »

If you played Bloodborne, you certainly know the Doll. The Plain Doll. A ray of light and comfort in this horrible night of the hunt. In this nightmare. 

She’s a sentient and animate doll in the Hunter’s dream. In the real world she’s not. She’s just a doll, in an abandoned old workshop (but is she really just that ?) Even if she’s not a real human being she’s much more than just a doll or an animated object.

Surprisingly some actions she does are closer to the one of a human. A doll wouldn’t need to sleep or to breathe right ? and yet she does. (Doll don’t shed tears or blood ? Well it’s not human tears or human blood but… she does that too…).

She’s not just “animated” she genuinely seems to have at least a little part of a human soul. (But not enough to be fully human…). Why and how she came to life remain a some kind of mystery. Well we can guess but we will probably never know in detail what happened. When was she animated?  When the dream was create ? Some time after ? Who knows...

Well I’m not planning to talk about this for now, no. I wanted to talk about something a bit different. 

There’s a LOT to say about the plain doll but for now I will only talk about why I think she was made in the first place. What’s her original purpose ? 

I know it’s kind of a sensitive subject. I don’t want to start anything and it’s not a way to continue anything. I just want to share my thoughts and maybe offer a different view on this topic to people who like Bloodborne and are looking for differents takes. Who are doing research to try to learn more & understand this amazing game more. (Personally, I would have like a lot to find more things like this when I began my own researches).

First allow me to explain how much I love her. Before even playing the game I already really like her. For the first few dozen hours of my first run she was my favorite character (yes my first run took me 100h that’s why).

So, There’s many interpretations and speculations about the doll. I’m not going to talk about everything or we never going to finish (i won’t go into detail about Maria, Gehrman or the winter lanterns for exemple) So I will concentrate only one main thing (+ minors interpretations). The main idea I believe about is that originally, the doll is supposed to be a mourning doll.

So what’s a mourning doll ?

First, we need to talk a bit about the Victorian era (Europe, XIXe century) and their custom about death. Some things they did to honored and remember their dead were really differents from what we do today. We could even say they are disturbing today. Death was something more common (expecially among children) and a less taboo subject. They had post-death pictures (a last photography of someone who is already dead like they were still alive, sometimes taken alongside relatives who are still alive), death mask (plaster mask of the face of the deceased person), jewelry made with hair and morning dolls.

So mourning dolls. They were made to represented a dead child. Help the family grief, to honor their memory, to remember them. That depend the age of the child but they were a lot smaller that the true size of the child. It was quite expensive to make so not everyone could order one . It was generally the size of an infant/baby or a small child, for the bigger one. 

They were made in the likeness of the child  they were supposed to represent. Usually the clothes they wear belong to the child. Sometimes the hair of the doll came from the dead infant as well.

After the funeral the dolls were usually place on the grave of the lost child. But sometimes they were kept by the family. Placed resting in the crib. And sometimes aven taken care of. We could say they were some sort of surrogate children ? They filled the emptiness left during grief.

I believe it correspond with the doll. Even if of course the doll is not based on a child but on an adult woman. (And she’s scale 1/1 and 2 meters tall..)

We know that the doll is based on Lady Maria. She might have die a big while before the event of the game. And we know that Gehrman probably made the doll, (at least her clothes. Thanks to the description. They were made with great love) after the death Maria (it makes the most sense).

"Discarded doll clothing, likely a spare for dress-up."  "A deep love for the doll can be surmised by the fine craftsmanship of this article, and the care with which it was kept."  "It borderlines on mania, and exudes a slight warmth."

So I think this work whatever the interpretations of the relationship between Maria & Gehrman you believe in.

(Ok maybe not the creep one. I’m not really a fan of this one though? But that depend I guess… she’s the only one doll we saw in the game. So this method of coping with her loose might be quite unusual for Yharnam. By the way a lot of things on this subject are in fact mistranslations).

Anyway if you consider the father/ daughter relationship it completely make sense ! He made a mourning doll based on his daughter/ daughter figure ! Completely in the theme. And also on the theme of the great one losing their child and earning for a surrogate.

Now, about the second big interpretation(s) (romantic/ oneside feelings etc) I believe it work too. Her looses disturbed him so much he made the doll for the reason people made one.  So yes it’s not the usually reason why people made morning dolls but I think it has the same final purpose. To honored her memory and to have something to take care of.

Remember how mourning dolls can be placed next to the grave too?

Well now I can’t saw this the same ever again… if you consider this is indeed Maria’s grave. 

My thoughts on this topic

About the doll face / appearance :

So it’s basically the same as Maria (almost). The « cracks » is probably because the painting on the faces is really old and hasn’t been done in quite some times. The grave is half broken because of the plants too.. it’s been awhile since nobody take care of them in the real world. Still, the doll is in a pretty good state.

Her face is a bit pale too… with dark circle under her eyes, white/ grey hair…a bit weird ? Did Maria really look like this before her death ? (When we fight her she looks more dead too…)

She could not have been in really good health and that’s why… but there’s another explanation.

The doll could be base on Maria after her death. But I don’t think he just take her corpse as a model and made the doll directly based on that… my view is the same as the following :

The last memory he have of her is probably after her death. The sight might have such a huge impact on him that unconsciously he made her that way / he could only remember her looking like this.

About the clothes.

Some tend to criticize a lot Gehrman about it. I don’t really agree with this view.

First we know that Maria stop being a hunter and took care of the research hall. And throw away her Rakuyo. 

The doll clothes are not made for fighting (really low defense. Only a little fire def like all the other Yharnamites clothes + probably a good quality fabric. It’s one one the most expensive set you can sell too). (And the cainhurst dress cost nothing 😭).

So that kinda respect her wish right ? Even if she never wear that kind of clothes maybe Gehrman wanted to give her comfortable and nice clothes, far from the hunt.  There’s a lot of layers it’s proper and really respectful. Yes she even got an orange short trousers underneath her skirt :

(And that came from a girl who doesn’t wear a lot of feminine clothes XD ! No dress, no skirt…).

And maybe she did wear such clothes, outside of the hunt. (The one we get who have an extra bow tie is describe are the spare set, that Gehrman probably made. We don’t know about the first one but it might be the same thing too?)

Maybe it’s even hers. Remember how morning dolls can wear the original child clothes ? (there's the pendentif too!) (+ the clothes are black and look like mourning clothes too).

Or maybe she begin to wear this when she begin to work at the research hall. Ok i know the patient are blind but maybe it wasn’t always the case ? A Lady Hunter sight like Maria will certainly scare quite some of them. But someone who is more like the doll we know? You would certainly trust her faster. 

Both even have almost the same boots ! I find it a bit modern even ? I’m not sure people wear that type of clothes together ? It remind me of something more modern. Like a dress/ skirt with some doc/ boots.

_ _ _

Also need to talk shortly about the cut content. Original the doll wasn’t was probably not a mourning doll. Bloodborne had multiple rewriting of it’s story + a lot of cut content so originally the doll was based on a different character (Queen Annalise. She was supposed to be a surrogate for the child of the Vileblood/ cut umbilical cord description ver 1.0/ but well it was retcon. And after it was someone else (when the apprentice, Gehrman & the doll were 3 differents characters) and after she was based on Lady Maria). 

But what I always found fascinating was that she seems to be a mixt from someone from Cainhurst (clothes/look) and the Healing church (black skirt, woman salute of the church…). It was probably so intriguing before dlc.

When I saw this it clicked in my head !

Other complementary interpretations / minor interpretations : 

Also it could be a desperate way to bring her back + to reach the next level of evolution.

I’m not sure that Gehrman really wanted to animated the doll in the real world but it’s also an idea I like 👍 so maybe he did ask help from the Moon Presence too.

Or Flora noticed that Gehrman was growing more and more tired and sad and all and was like : Tada! I made you a friend to keep you company. Using the doll of the person you care a lot about. That make you Happy right ? Right ?

Another idea I like, is how the church/ Laurence could be involve in the creation of the doll. 

Trying to bring back the soul of someone into an artificial body. Who doesn’t age, doesn’t get sick, doesn’t bled, you can change the part of… isn’t it’s on the theme as to try to evolve humanity to the next stage of evolution ? Closer to the great one ?

And I read a really cool theory on Reddit (Can’t find it again…) about how the winter lanterns are dolls yes but created by the church/Mensis to take care of Mergo/ help hunters in the nightmares. But  they get corrupted… (The common ideas is that the winter lanterns are some sort of nightmare of our hunter/ Maria / Gehrman / patient of the research hall. And I agree with this too.

So hm… that was long. There’s really a lot to say about Bloodborne, the lore and the characters. I could talk about it for hours maybe.

Thank you for reading this ! I hope it was interesting. I wish we can talk more about this subject nicely if you want to add something ! Thank you :)