#small is a lie

[myristicisms]

A Semi-In depth analysis of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Miriam

I haven't seen a lot of posts that have a timeline for the events listed and seeing as I write Miriam and am replaying the game, I've taken to compiling information I find important regarding the timeline as well as detailing thoughts I have regarding her characterization and personality, this is definitely something that ended up being a lot longer than I'd intended but regardless I'm very proud of it and wanted to share my findings in case anyone in the fandom was also wondering and wanted information or for anyone I write with that's not fully familiar with Miriam but wants to know her better for plotting/interacting purposes. With that said, there are four main sections to go through with the last two being full of spoilers for the game.

Part I; The Timeline Pre Game

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night begins with detailing the summoning of the hell castle by the alchemist guild in a last ditch effort to restore spirituality in England to maintain funding for their research, as per an unnamed alchemist's notes littered throughout the castle it's found that the prototype of a shard was unintentionally created as a byproduct of an attempt at creating a homunculus in the year 1764, in 1765 there was a demon that appeared and was dispatched by the guild which resulted in the discovery of other shards and their existences alongside the binding effect of the original prototype shard found a year prior, this discovery would eventually lead to tinkering with the idea of combining the shards with the human body to test what might happen and in 1766 it's implied that the first Shardbinders had been created; We see in the alchemist's notes once again that of the Shardbinders, the one that showed the most promise was Gebel however his shard lagged behind in developing further capabilities compared to the other children that had gone through the same procedure.

It's at this point in time that it's important to make mention that, due to other notes that will later be delved into, Miriam was born in the year 1765, one year before the beginnings of the Shardbinder experimentations and procedures became a thing which could imply one of three things; Either the alchemist guild acquired her as an infant and grafted the shard in her when she was a year or two ( unlikely though that's out of my own optimism which might be ill placed in this regard ), the alchemists acquired her as a toddler but waited until she grew a bit older before implanting the shard ( more likely given it's been said the shards attract demonic entities and that would endanger a young child that's defenseless ), or ( the most likely ) Miriam wasn't orphaned until later in her childhood and once she was sent to the orphanage, the guild likely took her in much as they did other children ( As Gebel is just slightly older than Miriam ) and grafted the shard into her during early teenhood.

It's also important to note additional information given by the unnamed alchemist's notes as well as Miriam herself that once the shard effectively bound itself to their flesh, the Shardbinders themselves were put into training against the different demons that would come to the guild and absorb the shards as a means of further expanding upon the guild's research and this effectively lasted until 1783, which is how I was able to find out Miriam's birth year because shes said to be 28 during the current events of Bloodstained, meaning Ritual of the Night itself takes place in 1793-1794, as we know Alfred put Miriam into an alchemical coma right before the ritual to summon Bael, which is stated to be a decade prior to when we start in the Galleon Minerva, with that being said, that's how I was able to calculate the year Miriam was born as well as when the game takes place.

Part II; Humanity, Family, and Grief

With previous timeline stuff out of the way, now I can move onto Miriam lore, I just wanted to get basic timeline information put out there, let's start off with Miriam's early life or with what we know about her early life ( likely around her early to mid teens but not too terribly close to 18 ), we know based on two separate conversations she has with Gebel and Johannes that before the ritual, likely at least a year or so, she resigned herself to feeling as though she was no better than the demons she'd have to absorb the shards of after killing them which eventually led into an argument with Gebel. We aren't given a timeline for any of Miriam's earlier years however with what we are given, it's safe to assume that a lot of her childhood/teenage years were far from normal circumstances and even traumatizing to a degree as per Miriam herself stating that the pain of all of the experiments and the shard itself had left her feeling hopeless as is stated in conversation with Gebel aboard the Galleon Minerva, quote “ I was the one that came to you broken, convinced I was a monster. And you told me— Our power doesn't make us good or bad. Our choices do. I'd given up on my humanity, but you restored my hope. Don't you remember?! ”

We also see her expand more upon this conversation/argument in a conversation with Johannes when he asks her about a promise she had made to Gebel, “ Well, back then, the experiments left me feeling stripped of my humanity. The pain from the crystal was a constant reminder. At one point, I lost my will to live entirely. Gebel and I got into a fight over some stupid thing, and I shouted,"How long are you going to pretend you're human? We're monsters now." ”; “ It cheered me right up. I felt like a person again." ” Followed by, “ And that was when we promised to stop each other if we ever lost the ability to choose. ”, As those are just her lines and not the dialogue from Gebel, I'll paraphrase the in-between; Essentially she had repeated to Johannes what she had said to Gebel aboard the Galleon Minerva, quoted in the previous paragraph.

Additionally Miriam also points out in dialogue aboard the Galleon how painful absorbing shards truly is, “ I'd... forgotten the way it felt... Like uninvited claws scraping across my bones... ” which lends to another interesting point; Miriam's willingness to sacrifice herself to some degree. Throughout the game, Miriam has to traverse the hell castle and absorb different shards in order to gain abilities and make progress, Gebel had knowingly put her into a situation where she would need to absorb shards in order to reach him and ( albeit with little success ) try to convince him to give up summoning Bael/quit being the lord of the hell castle. Something else worth noting is that with each shard that merges with her crystal, the more risk she has of the crystal corrupting and taking over her body which would effectively lead to her death; She's aware of this and even tells Johannes “ I know my body's limits better than anyone. And I'm going to need all the power I can get. ” After he expressed his concerns on the matter, of course this conversation happened prior to her conversation with Gebel and yet even with that knowledge she still put herself at risk in hopes of saving her best friend.

Moving on though, we also find out that Miriam wasn't completely parentless to some degree; Among the alchemists in the guild, she'd taken well to one named Alfred and saw him as a father figure of sorts, unfortunately though it's unlikely that that had been reciprocated as we see in the Den of Behemoths, Alfred's motivations for putting Miriam into the coma and attempting to keep her away from the castle weren't out of a sort of fatherly concern but because she's “ the most attuned ” in reference to her ability to wield demonic power through her shard, essentially making Miriam one of the main keys necessary for the summoning of Bael and effectively making her coma the main reason for the prior ritual's failure, though that isn't to imply he held no care for her either given the fact that he just as well could have killed her a decade prior which still likely would have halted the ritual much the same.

I'll be delving into spoilers now therefore this is the only warning I'll be giving regarding spoiling events in the game;

Part III; Storyline and Character Development

After initiating combat with Zangetsu for the second time ( initiate is a strong word, he decides they need to speak his language; Combat ) and proving herself worthy of wielding the Zangetsuto ( Zangetsu meaning moon slayer/to slice the moon, just neat trivia ), after which Miriam heads to fight Gebel and, depending on the player, will either receive the bad ending or unlock the final portion of the game. Should the player kill Gebel in combat ( this can be done prior to getting the Zangetsuto, similar to that of Castlevania SOTN with Richter and the holy glasses ) then a cutscene will play out depicting Miriam and Johannes standing outside the castle talking about what to do next, the castle has yet to fall and they decide to leave it to Dominique and the church despite both feeling as though something was off, this is the bad or wrong ending of the game. The true ending is unlocked via damaging Gebel just enough for the moon within his room to turn red, after which you need to slice the moon in half with the Zangetsuto which forces Gremory out and leads into another cutscene, this time between Miriam and Gebel.

In this cutscene, Gebel starts off with recognizing Miriam and telling her he's missed her and even thanks her for keeping her promise ( showing Miriam to be someone who keeps her word regardless of how painful it might be for her to do ), while the dialogue plays out, we can see Gebel slowly crystalizing and get to watch Miriam panic over how rapidly the process is taking over his body ( resulting in his death ) and insists she'll handle the castle while trying to convince both him and herself that Gebel will live, he does not. It's right before he fully succumbs to the crystal that Gebel delivers his final line, “ I'm glad I got to see you smile... one last... ” Only to die off which leads into Miriam weeping and Johannes finally making his appearance, it's here where Miriam expresses that she “ has a new promise to keep ” and then eventually finds her way into the Den of Behemoths after slicing the moon in half once more and opening a portal to the location.

It's here where she bumps into a severely wounded ( and dying ) Alfred and Zangetsu, who both reveal to her that they'd all been manipulated by Gremory and Dominique, at this point this leads into another point regarding Miriam's personality where it's mentioned multiple times throughout the game that she's incredibly stubborn as per Johannes and even Zangetsu mentioning the trait in their own backwards ways. Additionally, she's also shown to be incredibly independent as per her mentioning that she should be the one to handle the castle's problems since she's trained properly in combat compared to Johannes who is merely just an alchemist. Johannes also tends to put a focus on dietary needs for Miriam in some of his "extra" dialogue when interacted with after most of his story driven dialogue has been listened to, while not particularly impactful or important to note it can definitely be implied that Miriam could have an issue with not eating enough or simply he's concerned for her metabolism and a lack of proper sustenance due to her alchemical coma, regardless she's displayed delight in both cooking her own meals and eating new foods since she has a special animation whenever she does cook and often makes a happy remark whenever she eats something save for eating the dark matter, which results in a pathetic " that's foul... " And resulting in Miriam being poisoned, this shows she's not quite a picky eater which likely stems from a combination of her being an orphan in 18th century England and the likelihood that the alchemists may not have been too concerned about what was fed to the kids.

Moving on in the timeline as well as further characterization, upon reaching the glacial tomb, Miriam first faces Gremory, it's in this leading cutscene where she witnesses Zangetsu being ( presumably ) dragged down to hell and likely killed, during this scene just before he vanishes with Gremory's arms he says “ Good luck... Miriam. ” which then leads into Gremory taunting Miriam about the fact that while she has the Zangetsuto sword, she doesn't believe Miriam will succeed in killing her only for Miriam to respond with “ Wrong, demon. Zangetsu's wrath and mine are now one. ” Which while a bit of a cheesy cliche ( power of friendship or whatever ) also adds onto how important companionship and friends are to Miriam despite how she continuously loses those closest to her. ( RE; Gebel, Alfred, and even Zangetsu to an extent. ) After killing Gremory and acquiring the shard " Dimension Shift ", Miriam makes her way to the final room of the Glacial Tomb and encounters Dominique.

This encounter is dramatic with how intensely Miriam feels, her sense of justice shining through while listening to Dominique talk about her sought after power and reasoning for her ambitions. Dominique reveals her plan had been to slowly acclimate Miriam's shard to demonic corruption and upon being exhausted from her fight with Gebel, Gremory was meant to possess Miriam much the same as she had Gebel. Dominique further irritates Miriam by accusing Zangetsu of betraying her to which Miriam responds with “ Doing the right thing isn't a betrayal. ”, once again showing Miriam's strong sense of justice. Later in the dialogue it's mentioned that Dominique managed to find a way to receive her own crystal and with the shards sold to her ( or I guess pretend sold to her if the player refuses to do so? ) begins the ritual with the Liber Logaeth to summon Bael, Miriam makes a remark that it's a slow process to which Dominique says “ Do you really think you can stop me before then? ” resulting in Miriam retorting back with “ Oh yes I do. You don't understand what power is for. You wield it stupidly, arrogantly. And now you will pay the price. ” That line among other spoken dialogue throughout this particular conversation demonstrates a strong distaste for those that pursue ambition and power for the sake of doing so, it's after this conversation that Miriam must fight Dominique and unfortunately is just barely too late, resulting in yet another portal (?) being opened and starts the fight with the demon lord Bael.

It's after the defeat of Bael that Johannes uses the Liber Logaeth to destroy the hell castle and the ending dialogue begins with Miriam and Johannes standing outside Arvantville, their conversation essentially is just discussing the losses it took for their victory, Miriam grieving each one while Johannes remarks that they all made their own choices and their lives deserved to be celebrated, not mourned. The scene ends with Johannes mentioning that before Alfred's passing, he'd given advice on permanently halting the spread of Miriam's crystal and while he could not promise it would work, he would do his best. Miriam seems pleased enough and the duo leave to return to wherever they call home.

Part IV; Additional/Miscellaneous information

Miriam is able to play the piano, demonstrating prior training, this can be found in the Secret Garden and if you have the Carabosse summon equipped, will lead into a song, otherwise Miriam just plays a nice instrumental version of said song. Miriam's name has multiple meanings, the main ones being Bitterness, Sea of Stars, drop of the sea, and Beloved depending on which etymology you're looking at, all of which are very fitting of her character. Just before Alfred's death, his final interaction with Miriam is asking for forgiveness for all he'd put her through. While we see that Zangetsu was dragged to hell, players who play in a wider resolution will see his model walk in from the right side of the screen which could either just be a fun little easter egg or is meant to imply that he'd somehow escaped it, I don't really know the answer but I wanted to make mention of that small clip too just to get that out of the way.

[decamarks]

Thinking of becoming a guy that thinks wolves are the most badass and aspirational animal, but about ants. Like wearing t-shirts about being loyal to my Queen and training to bench 5x my bodyweight. Studying ant warfare. Posting shit like this

[paintedcrows]

Holiday Classics

Been thinking about Ford watching the 70s Animated Lord of the Rings Movies... (companion comic to this post!)

[hychlorions]

you were a fleeting, transient love

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

im a simple guy! i think about puppy Barnaby. i promptly explode into bloody heart-shaped confetti

[gimbapchefs]

the neverending titantics 😭

[sysig]

Blind side (Patreon)

[ariariari-freehounreal]

“It was you, and you alone that he had shown his bedroom dancer to

Shown his bedroom dancer to (x5)

And he would never tell you that it was his first time.”

.

Hello chelley nation look I drew the objectum autistic girl and her glorified soccer ball boyfriend

[galacticghoste]

The First Sunset

The sunset quote that Maria says was inspired by an old image I remember seeing, it had an image Kaori from Your lie in April. For some-reason I thought she said it in the anime but never does so I guess its just a quote in a picture.

[collophora]

Found a cool color palette. Might finish it later. (Probably not.)

[silusvesuius]

drac & pongorma ^_·^

[allbornscreaming]

SABRINA CARPENTER — because i liked a boy (Live at Coachella 2024)

[pyjamacryptid]

little girl, a patient: can I have a lollipop

doctor merlin in the 21st century: can you have— I have created butterflies from nothing and horses from smoke. I have seen empires rise, fall, crumble, and start from nothing but a fish in a poor man’s hand. I’ve fought witches and failed them too. I’ve laid waste to armies and blessed nations of people with health that will never make up for it. I have pantsed Kings and kissed Queens. I have stood upon the precipice of this world and called forth the ocean only for time to swallow me whole and spit me back out. And I would do it all again if I could grant you, dear Matilda, a lollipop.

little girl: strawberry?

merlin: say no more, Tilda, this should clear up the taste of that cold medicine right away

[goldensunset]

joining the war on autism on the side of the autism etc etc

[bacchuschucklefuck]

Riz has counted four casseroles this week alone. Five, if one goes by the method of cooking, but Yelen's scary when she's crossed, and calling her burek by its proper name is important to her, so Riz does her the courtesy and doesn't include it in his mental tally.

He holds the tupperware over his head to keep it out if the way as he takes careful steps over the piles of notes in his path. The dockman case just closed, relevant documentations handed over to relevant personnels, evidences dealt with as needed; all he has lying around now is just record of the process and traces of himself thinking through it. Unsurprisingly they still haven't invented a surface more convenient for people under five feet who like to pace to put pieces of paper on than the ground.

Actual records go into the case folder with the other documents. Anything else with at least one side still blank is going to the school kids in the block - they chew through an astounding amount of paper just learning arithmetic. The rest is for the recycling basket.

Later. It's his mandated lunch break right now.

Riz sits down in front of the corner file cabinet. In an office often overrun with papers and strings and sometimes even thumbtacks, he's never really managed to clutter up this exact square of surface like every other ones. Ever since the bottom drawer rattled for no discernible reason a day long past, his eyes have always just kinda decided to slide across the space without acknowledging it.

It's years out, now. Riz doesn't know why he thought it such a big deal anymore, back then. He wasn't scared, he doesn't think. Not anymore. Maybe just uncomfortable with the idea that certain things persist despite all efforts to change.

He opens the tupperware. Dame Carabelle's experiment greets him with enough spice in the aroma alone to knock out a small mammal. When he chopped the vegetables for this casserole he couldn't really imagine the eventual heft of it, evident even through just these few ladles' worth, maybe weighing heavier for being still warm. His folk eat more through the smell and the textures and the aftertastes than the taste itself. His folk's meal is really the cooking rather than the eating. The eating is the meal's end.

"Hey," he tells the file cabinet's bottom drawer. "Um."

It's the anniversary. Riz doesn't know the exact date of his dad's death; nobody currently alive does. He and Mom both use the date of the funeral, though as he moved out to Bastion and then got more directly involved with Interplanar he hasn't really been going to Dad's grave as much. Doesn't seem like very efficient use of his time, catching a train or borrowing a car or spending a whole spell slot on going somewhere he knows Dad isn't at. They're sorta coworkers now. They talk on and off every other week between missions. When he goes now, it's just to clean up the place, keeping the landmark tidy and respectable.

Without that work to mark the date he doesn't really know what it serves anymore. But he still remembers it. Still takes note, absently or not, when it comes around.

There's not really a good way to tell the drawer that. Riz looks for another way to start the... conversation, hopefully. The question at play, he'd guess, is why he's doing this. He's been pretty content ignoring all the rattlings and the knocks from inside and the times it sits slightly ajar without him ever opening it himself; hell, he still uses the three drawers on top of it. Space is fucking precious in Bastion.

Precious enough to finally fix this damn drawer so he gets his turn to use it? Riz asks himself. Is that what we're getting to? Then he dismisses the thought - he didn't manage to fix it the times he actually tried, let alone-- now. When he doesn't really care that much to.

That's probably a good place to start. "'s fine if you keep being in there, turns out," Riz says.

The lunch hours are quiet in the block, sleepy and bright with the brief window of sunlight that manages to break through roof overhangs and extended balconies and laundry lines and climbing vines. Riz's work isn't loud here (the loud parts happen away from his office, if everything goes right), but the fragment of early summer heat reflected in the steady warmth his meal still carries compels him to lower his voice even more. It makes the words feel intimate, in a way he's never been familiar with - if he says something he just says it. He doesn't whisper. If he gives his friends something, he gives it open-palm. He's found out, along the way, that people usually don't think of rituals and courtesies the way he does.

Small voice for a diminished monster. "You know why I think so?" Riz asks. "Because almost two decades ago you kidnapped me and almost killed me, and now you rattle a drawer in my office."

It doesn't sound as much like a taunt as Riz wanted it to; the drawer has made a lot of noises again this morning when he checked the calendar, and he was definitely annoyed at it. Now, though, facing it like this after cooking the whole morning with more grandparents and peers from the block than he can count on both hands to cater for a tenant union meeting, he thinks the annoyance has morphed. Changed shape.

It has the shades of something like pity. Riz is not prone to pity, and especially not at these kinda matters. It's slightly maddening that he coheres perfectly outside of this one spot. That he commands his spaces, except for a drawer.

He puts the tupperware onto the floor between himself and the cabinet. "I know we're aware it's the anniversary," he says at the drawer. "You do this every year. You make a ruckus every time I decide to go do my job instead of mooching off my friends' aircon, and every time I get an invitation to some stupid social thing I want to turn down, and every time one of the old people tries to introduce me to a child or a nibling, because being a bachelor over thirty is weird," he pinches the bridge of his nose. "I have three fucking jobs. I love doing my fucking jobs. I'm forcing funds into infrastructures. You're never leaving, are you."

The drawer vibrates lightly. It's a very, very mild acknowledgement, considering the history of reactions Riz has gotten from this thing. Riz thinks it's emanating joyous agreement, or satisfaction.

It only sharpens the pity. Riz doesn't like that, but it's how it is. That's, ultimately, the lesson he's been taught over and over and over again, just by existing as himself, turned every which way by space after space that don't see him eye-to-eye: it's not like he'd quit living over any of it. It's not like any of it can sand off these fundamental pieces of him.

He's outgrown a lot of things, he's found out. Again, and again, and again. A childhood home, a yearly trip, a monster.

"'s probably scary for you, huh?" He asks. "Because I left."

He thinks he hears joints creak that sound like you did. Probably the way a scorned lover would say it, in a movie or a yellowback. He has no more connection to the idea than he did as a kid. Less, because it doesn't even scare him.

"That's what it is, right? That it's the anniversary, and I'll never be like Dad." He raises a knee from the floor, pulls it back closer to him. Slings an arm over it. "You love to remind me. The thing is, Dad also left. He loved Mom and he loved me, and none of us wanted it to happen, but it still did. Because love does fuckall to make anyone stay on its own."

He's long past being bitter about it. It's just the facts. Once upon a time he looked into the future and the specter of his friends' happily-ever-after casted lightless, fathomless shadow over him. Love, marriage, that kind of devotion, to a fifteen-year-old with more solved cases than friends seemed so eternal. Final.

But you can only watch your friends build up apps' worth of jilted lovers for so long before getting over it.

"You know what I learned?" Riz tells the drawer. "Love doesn't make anyone stay. Project management does."

He stands up, and picks up the tupperware of Dame Carabelle's casserole, that he helped make, that he helped share with a block's worth of neighbors and members of a community he's at home with, and goes sit at his desk to eat. "Last chance to get any," he drops an offer over his shoulder as he walks away.

He doesn't eat all of his share in one go. What he's spared he leaves on the desk when going outside for a smoke break. Baron looks the exact same as when he saw them last, when he catches a glimpse; they haven't grown at all. They aren't there when he comes back inside, but the leftover has gone days-old cold, like someone's sucked the future out of it.

[thankstothe]