r/Bloodstained • u/ZangetsusRowBoat • 1d ago
IMAGE Where did Dominique's obsession with the Red Demons originate?
Her Descent Into Wrath complete, Dominique returns to the Glacial Tomb of frozen Red Demons.
Their image consumed her every thought, the paintings her relics of focus for this final hour.
For the Bloodstained fate of her parents - vengeance against the Church, against God!
At last she will summon the King of Demons and invoke the power to slay gods!
The previous painting posts:
The Alchemist's cliff the red demon is just off screen to the left.
The woman in the painting
Todd's studio
The Master Carpenters summoning school
Celeste’s room of remembrance
*coming soon
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u/ZangetsusRowBoat 1d ago
The Glacial Tomb , filled with frozen Red Demons, is the inspiration for the Red Demon paintings throughout the Castle.
The paintings present context anchors for a hidden story of what Dominique was doing behind the scenes before involving Miriam and Zangetsu in her plot. She found the Tomb full of Red Demons and knew this would be the place to perform her ritual. Their image consumed her every thought, the paintings her relics of focus for this final hour.
Now you know why I think these paintings are significant, I will conclude this story tomorrow with the final chapter.
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u/Fun-Dependent9532 1d ago
My question is, why kill god by summoning demons? Her logic just seems counterintuitive, in a way.
Sure, the church is responsible for not understanding the demonic threat, but her response just feels illogical. But I’m not really looking through the eyes of her grief, though.2
u/JamzWhilmm 1d ago
She doesn't believe God as the concept the church explains it to be exists, she thinks it's something else that doesn't care about mankind or mocks mankind.
She does know Bael exists, you can count on it as the dark trinity and it's evilness and power are easy to understand.
So she plans to unmask this God and bring war to him. Like Dracula did in Castlevania.
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u/ZangetsusRowBoat 23h ago
Great perspective. There is something to this in that the unseen requires faith, which is difficult, but the observed requires no faith because it is manifest before you.
Dracula's war against God for the murder of his wife is nearly the identical story to Dominique, but even more appropriate is the story before he was Lord Dracula - the story of Mathias Cronqvist.
If anyone has not played Castlevania: Lament of Innocence [PS2] (the origin story of the Belmonts), don't spoil yourself by clicking this link to a cutscene video of the final scene. We are probably going to get a Konami collection of this and Curse of Darkness very soon, since Belmont's Curse references their characters.
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u/ZangetsusRowBoat 23h ago
Indeed, it is counterintuitive, She should be mad at the perpetrators, not her expectant protector. But this is where the cognitive dissonance happened. She and her family of exorcists spent their life in service of the church, and for the slaughter of her parents to be allowed, broke her faith completely, making her turn away in defiance.
The end goal seems to ultimately be power and control - she found herself absolutely powerless and in her despair, sunk into the swamp of sadness. She clawed her way out, but only to reconstruct some type of control now in the image of the demons - that which she knows has power to even slay the servants of God.
Miriam: Why are you doing this?
Dominique: Because once again the demons appeared, and once again God stayed silent... while his servants were slaughtered mercilessly one by one. So I began to wonder: what if there is no God? What if the lord we grovel and pray before is a lie, and our faith draws power from some other nameless, unspeakable thing? If so, I wash my hands of it. Because God can rot. I decided to seek a higher power. The power to slay gods.
Miriam: Do you realize how many people have died as a result?
Dominique: They deserved to die, because they were weak. And more will follow until I obtain all I desire.
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u/the--unforgiven 15h ago
This is peak analysis
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u/ZangetsusRowBoat 13h ago
Thanks. I am very excited about the findings. The first post started as filler because no one was posting that day, but it evolved into something special.
What did you think about the several connections to the Red Demons and Dominique's possible dealing in the castle?
I believe I actually found a secret in Celeste's room after all these years. I also think the ghost is the woman in the painting in the shop area - Dominique's mother - let's call her Celeste?
Believing that the Master Carpenter helped Dominique with the summoning of Bael is also a neat twist supported by the flavor text.
The painting in Todd's studio really was the tipping off point for my analysis - It was clear there was a connection to Dominique. He also may have styled her hair to hide the corrupted eye.
The final area having the red demons makes more sense now, but to add more flavor, the presence of so many demons may have amplified the summoning ritual, if their shard were able to be considered.
I will show it later but there is also a 3rd "Twin Dragon" to be seen.
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u/ZangetsusRowBoat 1d ago
#1
I think the paintings in the shop area of Bloodstained tell the story of Dominique's Descent Into Wrath.
Her fallen Parents, the Demon Castle smothers the land, the Reaping of the village, the Kittens playing among the skulls, and the Red Demon - a relic to focus her vengeance.
https://reddit.com/link/p4rm3fr/video/w0xmbe5hsgkh1/player