The Doll: Who Is the Doll in Bloodborne?
The Doll is the living doll in the Hunter's Dream who turns Blood Echoes into strength. She's polite, gentle and unsure whether her own love is real. Here is everything the game says about her, plus the popular reading that she was made in Lady Maria's image.
The Doll is the life-sized doll in the Hunter's Dream who comes to life to serve the hunters there. She takes Blood Echoes and channels them into the hunter's strength, which is how the player levels up. She's gentle and formal, calls the player "good hunter", and wonders aloud whether a doll made by humans can love, or be loved. (Bloodborne)
Who is the Doll?#
Her first words set out her job: she is a doll, here in this dream to look after the hunter. Pursue the echoes of blood, she says, and she'll channel them into strength, to "embolden your sickly spirit". When levelling up she asks the hunter to shut their eyes. (Bloodborne)
She explains the dream as she understands it. Gehrman was a hunter long, long ago, now only an adviser, unseen in the dreaming world. The little ones, the Messengers, find hunters and serve them. The graves in the dream stand in memory of the countless hunters who came before. (Bloodborne)
Before the player has any Insight, she is just a still figure by the path. Players have found that 1 Insight is enough for her to move and speak. (Bloodborne)
Does the Doll have feelings?#
This is her central question, and she asks it herself. Hunters have told her about the Church, she says, and about gods and their love. "But, do the Gods love their creations?" She is a doll made by humans: would they ever think to love her? Of course she loves the hunter, she adds, "isn't that how you've made me?" (Bloodborne)
Sometimes she is found kneeling in prayer. She asks the flora of the moon, the little ones and the fleeting will of the ancients to keep the hunter safe, and to let this dream, the hunter's captor, one day be a fond and distant memory. (Bloodborne)
The hair ornament and the doll clothes#
The Abandoned Old Workshop in Cathedral Ward is a real-world copy of the workshop in the dream. Two items found there point at the Doll's past. (Bloodborne)
The Doll Clothes are spare doll clothing, "likely spare for dress-up". The description says a deep love for the doll shows in the fine craftsmanship and the care with which they were kept, a love that "borderlines on mania" and gives off a slight warmth. (Bloodborne)
The Small Hair Ornament is very ordinary, lost for a long time but once kept with care. Its colour, the description says, would stand out brilliantly against a head of greyish hair. Give it to the Doll and she says she can't remember a thing, only a yearning she's never felt before. "Tell me hunter, could this be joy?" (Bloodborne)
The Doll and Lady Maria#
In The Old Hunters, the player meets Lady Maria at the Astral Clocktower. She and the Doll look closely alike in face, hair colour and build. After Maria is defeated, the Doll says something has changed: from somewhere deep within, she sensed "a liberation from heavy shackles". (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The most common reading is that Gehrman, Maria's teacher, built the Doll to look like her. Supporting it: the Maria Hunter Cap says Maria admired Gehrman "unaware of his curious mania", and the doll clothes describe a love bordering on mania. Gehrman also offers the player "even the doll, should it please you" with a coldness that suggests she no longer means much to him. The game never says who made her, or why. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
A second reading is that the hair ornament belonged to Maria, whose hair is grey like the Doll's. Again, the game leaves this open. (Bloodborne)
The Doll in the endings#
- Yharnam Sunrise. She bids farewell: "May you find your worth in the waking world." In a new game she prays at a grave in memory of a hunter who "eventually saw the light of dawn". (Bloodborne)
- Honoring Wishes. She pushes the hunter, now in Gehrman's wheelchair, past the workshop. "And so... the hunt begins again." (Bloodborne)
- Childhood's Beginning. She lifts the infant hunter from the ground. "Are you cold? Oh, Good Hunter." (Bloodborne)
More on each ending is on the endings page.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is the Doll in Bloodborne?
- She is a doll that comes to life in the Hunter's Dream once the player has Insight. She levels the hunter up by channelling Blood Echoes into strength, and calls herself a doll "here in this dream to look after you".
- Is the Doll Lady Maria?
- No, but she looks very like Maria, and most players believe she was made in Maria's image. The game never states it. After Maria is defeated the Doll says she felt a liberation from heavy shackles.
- What do you do with the Small Hair Ornament?
- Give it to the Doll. She can't remember anything about it, but says she feels a yearning and asks whether it could be joy.
- What happens to the Doll in the endings?
- In Yharnam Sunrise she says farewell and later tends the hunter's grave. In Honoring Wishes she pushes the hunter in Gehrman's wheelchair and says the hunt begins again. In Childhood's Beginning she picks up the infant hunter and asks if they are cold.
Sources
- GameBloodborne, FromSoftware, 2015
- GameBloodborne: The Old Hunters, FromSoftware, 2015 (expansion)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
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