#he thinks hes doing whats best but there's that constant nagging that 'hmm maybe pumping slugs into people brains isn't helping'

[bornetoblood]

bloodborne questions time: in your mind what kept laurence going? why did he keep trying to administer the old blood to the public, even after he knew of its consequences? misguided compassion? sunk cost fallacy?? simply not giving a fuck??? good ol fashioned god complex???? something else entirely?????

everyone has a unique answer to this type of thing and its fascinating :)

OOOH this is a tough one! There are so many incredibly compelling answers to "why did Laurence do the things he did" and it's left beautifully unanswered in game. Personally, I like the interpretation that it's a little bit of all those things- a smorgasbord of compounding issues.

I think it's pretty safe to say that his intentions were originally 'good'. For all the Healing Church does horribly wrong it does provide safe, affordable medical care in an era where death and disease were a constant looming threat. Laurence originally wanting to give something good back to Yharnam and genuinely help just makes everything else that little more tragic IMO. Particularly if he knew about the Beast Side Effects (tm) but thought that medicinal care was more important or that he'd find a cure before it got too bad.

That said he's not innocent at all. From what we know the Research Hall was pretty early in the Chruch's life (or at least when it was at its height) and I wouldn't call anything in there virtuous. He can have good intentions and do awful things with them. The same thing applies to the Church's pushing of xenophobia towards Cainhurst. Like I personally read it as a strategic move on Laurence's part but the intentions behind bigotry don't fix the bigotry (specially cus it was the 'justification' the Church used for actual genocide!!!)

That said, I've talked about the value (or lack thereof) that Laurence places on human life before. He seems to care for people but levies this ultimate goal of ascension as much more important. This is something it seems like all the other Byrgenwerth Scholars share: be it Master Willem's influence, the kind of people that get accepted into the college, or just something in the water giving them delusions of grandeur. I can see this view, and Laurence's deliberate placing of himself as a religious leader in Yharnam, as developing into some sort of complex yeah. The "they don't know what's best for them. I'm enlightened to the truth! They may think me cruel now but when humanity ascends its flesh prison into the cosmos, then they'll understand" kinda thing.

Going on from that, all of Laurence's friends die or leave him and he eventually starts losing his memories. The translated lyrics to his theme imply a reluctance towards the blood at a certain point and I can see that being exasperated by the Burning of Old Yharnam or the Creation of the Dream or some other awful situation he put himself in. But at this point, he's been masquerading dictator for going on 2 decades and he can't just... dismantle his doctrine. That's where the sunk costs come in. He just has to double down. I can ABSOLUTELY see him becoming even more tyrannical in the last few years of his life.

Anyway, I see Laurence's motives as in a constant shift and change in reaction to his current standing. He's continually trying to justify something he knows is deeply harmful to both himself and others and it fucks with him.