Can someone explain the 'good' Bloodborne ending to me?

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So I finished my first play-through last night. Killed the dude in the wheelchair for no good reason, and because I ate three umbilical chords beforehand I fought a giant tentacle monster(because obviously. Eat baby parts and tentacle monsters just appear), and killed it...
and then it fades to black and the Doll finds a squid on the ground and that's me? She calls it a hunter and then its time for New game.

Like...what? Where did it say eat the baby parts, fight the tentacle monster and you'll become a squid? And why is that good? and why is being a squid something to be?! I have not understood the plot of this game at all. I've gathered the basics: its all a dream, blood is like 40k Warp(useful in a pinch, but if you abuse it you turn into a Spawn), the Church experimented with blood and I think brains, lots of Hunters went Chaosy, and its our job to set things right with giant swords and hammers, and there's a subplot of a cult trying to do culty things and there are Vampires, but we don't call them Vampires.

Outside of that I have no idea what those weird Lovecraft monsters were at all. I thought after the Living Failures boss they'd be aliens. The theme for that fight is very close to Holtz Mars Bringer of War, so I figured that'd be the great twist. Martians or space aliens at least. But nothing ever became of it.
Then Lady Maria is all 'You'll never find out the secret of the fishing village' and this is the first time a secret has even been mentioned! And then, when you get to the village its just a bunch of fish people, and the Orphan of Kos boss and still no secret! I thought after I killed the Orphan there would be a cut-scene or that shadow figure would talk, but nothing. The DLC ends and no secret has been revealed and I have no idea if I did any good. Who's Kos? Why is Kos dead? Why is the Orphan a dude if Kos is a whale? Where's the Father? Why did those weird brain things ask me if I'm Maria? Why did brain juice turn the one lady into the Blob? If I just apologized to the fire monster werewolf for waking him up, can we call off the fight?
And then there's that Micolash guy who after he dies he says 'Oh no, I'm going to wake up with no memory' which for me cements the whole thing is a dream, if the fact its literally called the Hunter's Dream and the bosses are called Nightmares didn't do it.
But again, its never really confirmed and then it just kinda' ends.

 

[jademunky]

Ah From Software.

I really don't know what to make of their style of storytelling. There are countless videos analyzing their games to death and I sometimes wonder if we all give the lore way more credit and thought than it deserves. Maybe the game's own creators have no better an answer to the OP's questions than the OP himself.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So I finished my first play-through last night. Killed the dude in the wheelchair for no good reason, and because I ate three umbilical chords beforehand I fought a giant tentacle monster(because obviously. Eat baby parts and tentacle monsters just appear), and killed it...
and then it fades to black and the Doll finds a squid on the ground and that's me? She calls it a hunter and then its time for New game.

Like...what? Where did it say eat the baby parts, fight the tentacle monster and you'll become a squid? And why is that good? and why is being a squid something to be?! I have not understood the plot of this game at all. I've gathered the basics: its all a dream, blood is like 40k Warp(useful in a pinch, but if you abuse it you turn into a Spawn), the Church experimented with blood and I think brains, lots of Hunters went Chaosy, and its our job to set things right with giant swords and hammers, and there's a subplot of a cult trying to do culty things and there are Vampires, but we don't call them Vampires.

Outside of that I have no idea what those weird Lovecraft monsters were at all. I thought after the Living Failures boss they'd be aliens. The theme for that fight is very close to Holtz Mars Bringer of War, so I figured that'd be the great twist. Martians or space aliens at least. But nothing ever became of it.
Then Lady Maria is all 'You'll never find out the secret of the fishing village' and this is the first time a secret has even been mentioned! And then, when you get to the village its just a bunch of fish people, and the Orphan of Kos boss and still no secret! I thought after I killed the Orphan there would be a cut-scene or that shadow figure would talk, but nothing. The DLC ends and no secret has been revealed and I have no idea if I did any good. Who's Kos? Why is Kos dead? Why is the Orphan a dude if Kos is a whale? Where's the Father? Why did those weird brain things ask me if I'm Maria? Why did brain juice turn the one lady into the Blob? If I just apologized to the fire monster werewolf for waking him up, can we call off the fight?
And then there's that Micolash guy who after he dies he says 'Oh no, I'm going to wake up with no memory' which for me cements the whole thing is a dream, if the fact its literally called the Hunter's Dream and the bosses are called Nightmares.
But again, its never really confirmed and then it just kinda' ends.

It's from the mind of the guy who made Dark Souls, so yeah...it'll be "out there". Perhaps even more-so in this case though, because it's a spinoff of sorts.

Having said that, if it's anything like Souls, it was designed to be open to the user's interpretation, and Miyazaki himself probably only knows the one "true" meaning behind it all.

So, there! Others will elaborate I'm sure. I still haven't had time to get all the endings myself. Still tackling the last chalice dungeon.

 

[CaitSeith]

Here is a better explanation than what I may be able to write.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

Never played any of the souls games, but, according the guy below, the ending you got is that you've become an infant god. Arguably better than becoming a slave or becoming ignorant.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Here is a better explanation than what I may be able to write.

...okay. I get it, I think. Barely any of that was in the game from what i could tell - like I don't remember where they say the Pthumerians are an ancient race, instead of just zombies, and the whole idea of an alien Civil War going on seems...speculative.

Also I guess now I'm confused as to what the game is. Like its all a dream, as evidence that chair dude tells you its a dream and he can wake you up. Good. Great!
But we've killed the nightmares. Rom, the baby, Kos and Ludwig and a few others. So if we wake up, are the nightmares still dead? Sure we've lost all knowledge of the Hunt, but the Hunt was not only just a dream, we killed the monsters in the dream, so...shouldn't it all be fine? We go off to live a full life, content that the only things left in the Dream are the chair dude, the doll and the tentacle monster. Everything else is dead, and the bosses don't respawn, so we know they're not coming back.
Sounds like Luke Skywalker loosing his memory after the Trench Run. Sure he doesn't remember blowing up the Deathstar, but he still did and its not coming back.

Also the idea that the more insight you have, the more fucked up the world seems and the more monsters you can truly see would have worked so much better if everyone else wasn't fully aware of the monsters too. Or if there were say civilians who think you're crazy for running around with a flamer-thrower, shooting it as shadows. Every NPC seems fully aware monsters are real, shit is getting fucked and something terrible will happen during the blood moon.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I submit From Software doesn't "write" its games with a very clear canon or cause-and-consequence train of events in mind. To me the games are impressionistic and deliberately vague and obfuscating in the interest of creating an oppressive atmosphere. Like nightmares.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I submit From Software doesn't "write" its games with a very clear canon or cause-and-consequence train of events in mind. To me the games are impressionistic and deliberately vague and obfuscating in the interest of creating an oppressive atmosphere. Like nightmares.

See I hope not. To me, leaving it all vague and open to interpretation is lazy story-writing. In fact, its a lack of story-writing.

Just throw a bunch of weird squid monsters at the player, have a spooky lady say 'The world is not enough' and then a cat moos, and then we the player are left to try to understand what the hell is going on.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I submit From Software doesn't "write" its games with a very clear canon or cause-and-consequence train of events in mind. To me the games are impressionistic and deliberately vague and obfuscating in the interest of creating an oppressive atmosphere. Like nightmares.

To me, leaving it all vague and open to interpretation is lazy story-writing. In fact, its a lack of story-writing.

That's exactly what I think of the Souls games.

 

[Trunkage]

I submit From Software doesn't "write" its games with a very clear canon or cause-and-consequence train of events in mind. To me the games are impressionistic and deliberately vague and obfuscating in the interest of creating an oppressive atmosphere. Like nightmares.

See I hope not. To me, leaving it all vague and open to interpretation is lazy story-writing. In fact, its a lack of story-writing.

Just throw a bunch of weird squid monsters at the player, have a spooky lady say 'The world is not enough' and then a cat moos, and then we the player are left to try to understand what the hell is going on.

I remember Dark Souls storyline. First, you have to prove your worth by getting out of the asylum. If you want to prove your worth, ring two bells. Again prove your worth by going through Sen's. Golem - prove your worth. Next, you have to prove your worth by getting to and then through Anor Londo. Then prove your worth by defeating Ornstien and Smough. Finally you get to find out your final mission. Can you guess what you might need to do?

Prove your worth by finding four lord souls.

This means you have proven your worth and have a chance to defeat the end boss.

This is probably how most games go, you can't get to the next stage in Mario unless you reach that flag. But the Dark Souls 'prove your worth' mentality wasn't there. Thank god that wasn't a focus for the next two games.

Many people disliked how Dark Souls 3 story went. I wonder if too many people were looking at it at the same time. No unfounded theories came out becuase there were so may people fact checking unlike the first one. I'm looking squarely at the stupidly of Solaire being the first, as it had no leg to stand on.

But then I remember the silliness of Soliare soup and I think the Dark Souls loremasters are just deranged.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...okay. I get it, I think. Barely any of that was in the game from what i could tell - like I don't remember where they say the Pthumerians are an ancient race, instead of just zombies, and the whole idea of an alien Civil War going on seems...speculative.

Also I guess now I'm confused as to what the game is. Like its all a dream, as evidence that chair dude tells you its a dream and he can wake you up. Good. Great!
But we've killed the nightmares. Rom, the baby, Kos and Ludwig and a few others. So if we wake up, are the nightmares still dead? Sure we've lost all knowledge of the Hunt, but the Hunt was not only just a dream, we killed the monsters in the dream, so...shouldn't it all be fine? We go off to live a full life, content that the only things left in the Dream are the chair dude, the doll and the tentacle monster. Everything else is dead, and the bosses don't respawn, so we know they're not coming back.
Sounds like Luke Skywalker loosing his memory after the Trench Run. Sure he doesn't remember blowing up the Deathstar, but he still did and its not coming back.

The Nightmares are permanently dead - and due to the dream essentially being their reality, and how they influence our reality, they're very dead in the waking world too - but the thing is the dream is still... a dream. It's the realm of the Tentacle Monster, a method for hunters to fight back against the Nightmares. With them all dead there's... no reason for you to hang around. Jobs done, go home kinda deal. Unless you're really keen on the hunt, that is, which is the only reason to stick around, and how you get the second ending where you take Wheelchair dude's place as Leader of the Hunt, presumably to rally new hunters to go ruin the shit of new Nightmares.

Really, the endings can be summed up as:
Ending 1: Job Done, time to go home, wake up out of the dream.
Ending 2: Job Done, but you like the hunt too much, so you take the job of Wheelchair dude so you can keep hunting.
Ending 3: Job Done, fight wheelchair dude, but turns out you ate a little too much baby Old God, fight the Moon Spirit and take HIS job instead.

...makes it kinda weird that everyone refers to the 3rd one as the 'Good' ending. It's harder to get, sure, but FromSoft games tend to have more 'you choose what fits you' endings than 'Good/Bad' ones.

 

[gsilver]

This video isn't specifically about the ending, but any and all videos by VaatiVidya about Bloodborne (and other games, too) tend to be insightful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjWOy6ioVHI


And while we're talking about endings:
I went for the 3rd ending the first time around, but when I replayed it, I intentionally chose ending one. It felt the most fitting for it to be "over" at least for my character.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I feel like the point of the lack of lore in the Soulsborne games, beyond of course the snippets here and there given in item texts and cryptic NPC dialogue, is to more or less player-insert storytelling, where the character you play has not much (if at all) memory of the world as it was, so all you get of what's happening is what little memory you can recall through objects found, and what others tell you (which may or may not be true) because you're existing in a world that, to quote the Dark Tower series, "has moved on" with its history pretty much lost to the desolation, destruction, and deterioration of the world and the possibly inaccurate memories of those who still dwell within it. Some may feel that's lazy storywriting, but personally I find it to be interesting to fill in the blanks for myself, regardless of whether or not it actually is the truth. Maybe in a world so far gone, there isn't any real truth anymore, since the history is pretty much lost.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Really, the endings can be summed up as:
Ending 1: Job Done, time to go home, wake up out of the dream.
Ending 2: Job Done, but you like the hunt too much, so you take the job of Wheelchair dude so you can keep hunting.
Ending 3: Job Done, fight wheelchair dude, but turns out you ate a little too much baby Old God, fight the Moon Spirit and take HIS job instead.

...makes it kinda weird that everyone refers to the 3rd one as the 'Good' ending. It's harder to get, sure, but FromSoft games tend to have more 'you choose what fits you' endings than 'Good/Bad' ones.

This makes so much sense, thank you! I was sat here wondering why the baby squid ending is the 'good' ending when it seems to be the worst, just hardest, to get.

Ending 2 seems interesting, assuming there will be new nightmares to fight eventually. But ending 1 seems like the one I'm going with in my next run.

 

[TilMorrow]

To be frank there's no definitive proof that the Moon Presence ending is the "good" ending or really any solid explanation for Bloodborne irregardless of how many people claim they've figured it out or have one for it.

But there is the lazy interpretation of Bloodborne and then there's the indepth interpretation.

Spoiler: Lazy Interpretation

Everything that happens in Bloodborne is a cyclical dream caused by your illness, it's like The Evil Within without technology being the reason for why everything is as it is. The only "real" part is the opening cutscene where you're identified as an outsider and have come to Yharnam for blood ministration (which the game identifies as being famous for curing people) and are put under before your treatment. Then the rest of the game is your imagination and diseased mind reacting to the treatment using what you've seen and heard about Yharnam and it's history. As for the endings, no matter which one you choose it ultimately doesn't matters as the hunt is destined to repeat Ad Infinitum in your mind even if you perceive yourself as being reborn or waking up.

Spoiler: Indepth Interpretation

None of Bloodborne takes place in a dream, instead it forms on different plains of consciousness. At the start of the game you're infused with the same Blood used for healing and doubles as a means of perceiving the "true" face of Yharnam that was disguised by it's human appearance where people's bodies have become more bestial or grotesque and their minds have concentrated creating creatures out of nothing. Steadily as you infuse more Blood into your system and partake in the insight discovered by the Scholars of Yharnam you start to see the higher and more maddening layers of Yharnam and even become able to access the plains of consciousness crafted by those who transcended their bodies or who no longer recognised themselves as human. Basically you figure out all this was leading up to the people of Yharnam being split between wanting to create a god of consciousness and contacting what they believe was actually one already out there. Pthumerians are what enabled all this to happen by forming the foundation of an overlaying consciousness and the chalice dungeons as different and volatile layers of consciousness based on the catacombs of their old empire.
Then:
Ending One is basically you escaping the consciousness that is Yharnam when Gehrman removes your head and you awaken in the ruins of a empty city that it's people have transcended.
Ending Two is challenging Gehrman's right to remain and continue the hunt only to discover the Moon Presence's existence and are sapped of your strength and chosen as the new helper of the Hunters.
Ending Three is you beating the Moon Presence and giving birth to the pure worm/Great One child you see. The misconception is that you get turned into the worm when the whole game emphasis that absorbing the umbilical cords would grant greater knowledge and the fact people who had them were becoming pregnant because of them and the item description itself suggests a yearning for surrogacy disproves that. Instead it's likely you die in this ending after giving birth to the Great One to replace Gehrman and the Moon Presence.

 

[Saelune]

I would like to suggest that applying 'Good/bad' to the endings is misleading. More like "True" ending would be better.

Also to add, The 'Dream' while it suggests that the game was well, a dream, following the plot of Eileen the Crow suggests that the dream isnt literally a dream, but it is really some sort of twisted immortality, and that being 'awoken' from it turns you mortal, but perhaps also removes any madness from you.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

As others have said, it's not so much as a "good" ending, as just another alternative. IMO the closest thing to an actual "good" ending would be submitting to Gehrman at the end, since it's the only time you get to see actual daylight and manage to escape the Hunt.

Bloodborne's story is, like all Souls games, a bit backwards in the sense that the game's plot is just what happens on screen, but the actual story can only be discovered by finding the context for the plot. And that's found by piecing it together from item descriptions, environmental clues and the blithering madness of the dialogue. VaatiVidya is perhaps the leading expert in deconstructing Soulsborne lore, and he does the best job on the internet of explaining the stories. Turns out Bloodborne's lore is insanely complex with a long history, multiple planes of existence, factions with different goals, really strange bending of what constitutes reality, what it means to be "dead" or "alive". Even putting together a timeline of events is a nightmare (pun intended), and trying to explain the ending without giving the proper context first is like trying to explain alpine skiing to a fish. Anyway, here's the briefest summary I could find:


The shortest explanation is that what you call the "good" ending is the first step of humanity taking its next great leap in evolution; ascending to a higher plane of existence and becoming more like the Great Ones. Which is both an awesome and terrifying concept, considering what we've seen the Great Ones to be like.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I would like to suggest that applying 'Good/bad' to the endings is misleading. More like "True" ending would be better.

Also to add, The 'Dream' while it suggests that the game was well, a dream, following the plot of Eileen the Crow suggests that the dream isnt literally a dream, but it is really some sort of twisted immortality, and that being 'awoken' from it turns you mortal, but perhaps also removes any madness from you.

So I've been researching a little, and there are two 'realities' going on. The real world, and the dreams(Hunters dream and any nightmare realm, and post-Rom red moon land) and the Hunt takes place on both fronts, with real world normal Hunters like Eileen, Gyula and Alfred, and the Nightmare front where the player characters fight.

Also those real world hunters have all already done a tour of duty on the nightmare front, fighting their own nightmares and the old one baby of the moment, and they all accepted the first ending, to return to the real world, forget the nightmare wars, and continue with the real world hunt.

So presumably, within the world, if the player character chooses to wake up, he just becomes another Hunter wondering the streets, killing beasts and helping the nightmare front hunters when he meets them.

 

[CaitSeith]

...okay. I get it, I think. Barely any of that was in the game from what i could tell - like I don't remember where they say the Pthumerians are an ancient race, instead of just zombies,

"The old labyrinth was carved out by the Pthumerians, superhuman beings that are said to have unlocked the wisdom of the eldritch Truth." - Central Pthumeru Chalice description

And there are things that were left out in the video (like the land of Loran, which was lost to the scourge of the beast)

 

[Maximum Bert]

I submit From Software doesn't "write" its games with a very clear canon or cause-and-consequence train of events in mind. To me the games are impressionistic and deliberately vague and obfuscating in the interest of creating an oppressive atmosphere. Like nightmares.

To me, leaving it all vague and open to interpretation is lazy story-writing. In fact, its a lack of story-writing.

That's exactly what I think of the Souls games.

I also concur. Thats not to say I dont enjoy the games I mean I loved Demons Souls because it felt so fresh at the time and you never knew what to expect it was like a mash of crazy ideas and a boss could be a real challenge or a cakewalk but over time it started to settle into a groove and feel like a bit less passion and effort was put in.

Storywise it always felt like it was about to be written as in the world is roughly defined characters are given a basic motive and background and the player is given a goal but they never bothered to write past that. In one sense I find it an interesting experiment at least at first but the more they did it the lazier it felt because it is just crafting the barest bones of a story.

As for Bloodbourne I honestly couldnt care less what happened when I finished it I was glad to be rid of it at that point as while it had engaged me earlier it had long since worn out its welcome on all fronts but from what I gathered from it you had essentially evolved by re birthing yourself into an old one. I remember them trying to achieve an evolution throughout the story to be able to reach the ones who came before and some thought the blood was the way and others thought they must do it through their own efforts not borrowed power or some stuff I cant really remember. I just thought ok through my own efforts and mastering the blood the character was able to achieve that evolution showing that both were right and wrong.

As for the thing you had to eat three of (cant even remember what it was) I just thought oh right some stem cell nonsense or something that will be a catalyst for the change its also why that old one couldnt control you as you had become his equal.

This was just my idle musings though because as I said I didnt really care to much at that point.