#and there's probably a bajillion better essays and analyses on this game

[astraldrake]

*rotates ludwig in my mind* nothing coherent BUT

dude shows up in so many item descriptions in the base game like "oh he recruited regular yharnamites to join the hunt :)" "he was the first church hunter :)" "he and his sword are the symbol which represents the church hunters :)" "btw church hunters were usually clerics which meant they always turn into the worst and most horrible monsters :))))" like ok damn cool it with the foreshadowing should probably specify that i very much did not go into this game blind id seen people fight him before but watching someone do something is not the same as doing it yourself I'm pretty sure he's the boss i've taken the most tries to beat, but weirdly i didn't mind it?? i usually get annoyed if i keep running up against a boss over and over with no success. (looking at you, crystal sage. although tbf i've been enjoying bb a lot more than ds3.) anyways i don't think i need a phd in media analysis to tell you that there something interesting in a proud symbol of the healing church and it's hunters being reduced to a screaming horse monstrosity wallowing in a pit of corpses. like ok ok this dude is the church hunter, both the first and the one all others will look to and aspire after. (with some exception made for sub factions like the choir and the executioners who obviously had their own venerated figures but i digress) his sword is synonymous with him, replicas of it are a common weapon choice, and it's also the basis for the church hunter badges (sword and radiant). It's not tough to extrapolate how important the guy would have been. So with all that weight behind him, ludwig as a symbol becoming a horrid bestial monstrosity (he has one of the most unpleasant beast designs imo) points further to the fact that even as the church hunters seek to root out the scourge, they are themselves corrupted and will inevitably succumb to the blood.

(the healing church in general runs on this really neat paradox where the blood is good and healing and holy but also if you become a beast or show signs of transformation you are impure and diseased and must be destroyed.) And i mean he's not the first holy person of the church we've seen turn monstrous. there's gascogine, the cleric beast, vicar amelia, and laurence. so he's another variation on a theme we've been shown before (and will see again). him and gascoigne are neat bcs both of them are humanized by stuff that happens outside of the fight. with gascoigne we get the quest with his daughters and wife, and with ludwig we get the chat with him after the bossfight.

("i didn't want to know what it was, really, i didn't." AUGH )

it's a neat element given how their bossfights are kind of parallel. (in the sense that one turns into a monster at half health, while the other reverts from a monster at half health. )

tldr i totally did start a new second character w/ stats allocated just so i can use his kickass sword (both the magic and nonmagic ones) ( that and the boom hammer.)