In all of FromSoft’sSoulsgames, certain elements appear again and again. This can be some emphasis on fire, on the corruption of gods or order, or simply how each FromSoft setting is far past its prime. Some are harder to pinpoint exactly, while others like theMoonlight Greatsword are nice Easter eggs. Some characters also follow similar paths or have similar setups to past characters, and that’s true ofBloodborne’s Gehrman andElden Ring’s Radagon.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH ELDEN RING AND BLOODBORNEThis is not to say that the two characters are 1:1 copies of each other, but there is plenty to compare between Gehrman and Radagon. These could be small details, such as how both led their own crusades of sort (Gehrman against the Scourge and Radagon against the Academy), but a few major details between theElden RingandBloodbornecharacters stand out.
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Elden Ring and Bloodborne: Gehrman and Radagon’s Entrapment
For starters, Gehrman and Radagon are both trapped by their “god” of sorts. Radagon is permanently bound to Marika’s body (they are one and the same, but they existed in two different bodies at one time) and is trapped within the Erdtree because of her. He was and remains loyal tothe Greater Will, unlike Marika, and he desperately tries to repair the Elden Ring. This is to no avail, as the Tarnished will fight and defeat Radagon eventually.
Gehrman, meanwhile, is trapped in the Hunter’s Dream by the Moon Presence. The exact reasoning is never clear, but it seems to encourage the hunting of the Great Ones and may very well want a surrogate for a missing child. Either way, the Moon Presence was beckoned by Laurence and eventually established a contract to create The Hunter’s Dream with Gehrman. The latter mourned the loss ofBloodborne’s Lady Mariaand sought to bring The Doll, who looks like her, to life. Not only did this fail, at least in so much as it gave him that love back, but he was trapped within the dream—he can be hard in his sleep pleading for Willem or Laurence to save him.
Despite their entrapments, the context behind each of them is different. Radagon is loyal to the Greater Will and the Golden Order, yet because of Marika, he is punished and trapped just like her. It’s a little more tragic in those terms. Radagon did nothing deserving of punishment. While Gehrman suffers in the Hunter’s Dream, it’s because he agreed to the Moon Presence’s contract. It’s still pretty heartbreaking, especially when players realize thatGehrman does want other Hunters to suffer, but it’s still a cage of his own making.
Elden Ring and Bloodborne: Boss Fight Similarities
Their similar fates also manifest in their boss fights, not through their tactics, but through the context that surrounds the fight. For first-time players, thebattle against Gehrmanand Radagon may seem like the end of the line, but as they fall, something worse rises in their place.
Bloodborneplayers can choose to submit or fight to Gehrman, with the latter resulting in the Moon Presence binding the Hunter to the Dream. However, should they eat three pieces of an umbilical cord,Bloodborne’s Moon Presencewill not be able to do so and they must fight it. In other words, after players defeat the man behind all of this, they must fight the godly presence that drove them and created the world/dream they exist in.
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The same happens for Radagon. When players are on the verge of claiming the Elden Lord title for themselves, they realize they must fight a cosmic deity afterward—The Elden Beast, a manifestation of The Greater Will. Just as the Moon Presence controls and manipulates the Hunter’s Dream, The Greater Will and its Golden Order are the ruling power over the Lands Between. If anything, The Greater Will and the Moon Presence share as many commonalities as Gehrman and Radagon, if not more.
Elden Ring and Bloodborne: Forbidden Love
It’s also worth noting how they both loved someone they should not. As players learn throughBloodborne’s Old Hunters DLC, Gehrman felt a particular love for Maria. Its exact nature is unknown, but it is clearly slightly disturbed. Gehrman would eventually fashion a doll that would look like her, and when she went missing after the Fishing Hamlet catastrophe (becoming trapped in the Hunter’s Nightmare), this led directly to Gehrman’s deal with the Moon Presence.
For Radagon, it’s a little more complicated (and simple at the same time) than that. Radagon was married twice. The second time was to Marika, his other half, with whom he had children. It doesn’t seem likely that Radagon loved her, though it’s hard to say for sure given the sparse details and oddities of the situation. This is because he was summoned by her when Marika madeGodfrey the first Elden Lord the first Tarnished.
Instead, his first marriage was with someone he was not supposed to love. He had taken the armories of Leyndell and waged war against the Academy, eventually marrying the head of it—Queen Rennala. They would have three children, he would learn of her magic, and when he was taken away, he would leave her a Great Rune. It seems much more likely that Radagon truly loved Rennala instead of Marika, and yet it was something he likely knew he shouldn’t.
There are definitely quite a few comparisons to be made betweenBloodborneandElden Ring—one could note how much likeBloodborneRennala’sGreat Rune of the Unbornreally is—but that’s perhaps the beauty ofSoulsgames. These recurring themes are hardly noticeable on a surface level. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, FromSoft’s catalog has built a seriously dedicated fanbase.
Elden Ringis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
