Father Gascoigne's Dance with the Devil
Gascoigne's tragic narrative in Bloodborne and Immortal Technique's "Dance with the Devil" illuminate the enduring allure of power and wealth, revealing the cyclical ramifications of greed from a macro-social perspective.
Gascoigne’s past prior to his commemoration as a cleric of the healing church is shrouded in mystery, yet his tattered garb tells us that he journeyed to the city of Yharnam from a distant land; likely in search of a miracle. For at the time, Yharnam was a thriving metropolis, an enigmatic composition of Victorian cathedrals and gothic architecture, which housed and manufactured a pinnacle of scientific marvel; the old blood. Sourced from cryptic tombs buried deep beneath the city’s streets, remnants of a civilization that preceded mankind, this elixir boasted the city as a beacon of hope. Under the purview of ordained ministers, transfusion of the old blood not only remedied incurable diseases but also amplified the patient’s visceral potential.
As the demand for this miracle liquid soared, the Church’s influence over Yharnam’s populace tightened its grip. Yet, hidden beneath the facade of salvation lay a sinister truth. The old blood was not a product of invention, it was harvested from otherworldly creatures; remnants of a civilization that preceded mankind. Far from a divine cure, blood ministration initiated a grotesque transformation, warping the recipient’s body and mind. Thus, a cycle of consumption and pollution was cultivated by the healing church’s greed, as Yharnamites unwittingly embraced their descent into primal savagery.
In a desperate bid to conceal the truth, the church deflected accusations by excusing the side effects as anomalies; a mere coincidence of physiology. As the affliction of beasthood spread amongst the citizens, the church could no longer feign ignorance. In desperation, they resorted to drastic measures, enlisting skilled mercenaries like Gascoigne to hunt down and eliminate those afflicted. Under the guise of holy clerics, Gascoigne and his father-in-law embarked on merciless campaigns, purging Yharnam of its cursed inhabitants. Fueled by the promise of power and emboldened by the old blood coursing through their veins, they justified their brutal actions as necessary sacrifices for the greater good of the city.
To this end, the church would exercise targeted assassination and even poison the masses in search of a cure. Eventually, Gascoigne would retire from his position at the church presumably to care for his two daughters and wife. Although his scars would heal, the former hunter could never escape his past for his blood had been tainted after countless hunts. Corrupted by the blood ministration which kept him alive, Gascoigne would periodically suffer from fits of rage, consumed by bloodlust.
“Oh, I mustn’t forget. If you find my mum, give her this music box. It plays one of daddy’s favorite songs. And when daddy forgets us we play it for him so he remembers. Mum’s so silly, running off without it!”
A small music box recieved from a young Yharnam girl. Plays a song shared by her mother and father. Inside the lid is a small scrap of paper, perhaps an old message. Two names can be made out, however faintly,Viola and Gascoigne.
When the player first meets the infamous hunter, he is but a shadow of himself; deliriously hacking away at corpses; almost akin to the very monsters that he hunts. The cleric is beyond saving, he frantically swings his axe, incoherent of his surroundings and intoxicated by his bloodlust. The renowned black church minister hardly resembles the poise and skill of a hunter. Yet, amidst the chaos, a brief moment of clarity pierces through his madness when he hears the melancholic melody of a music box. In that fleeting instant, Gascoigne’s humanity flickers back to life, a haunting reminder of the man he used to be.
But tragedy lurks around every corner in Yharnam, and Gascoigne’s sorrowful tale is far from over. On a desolate rooftop nearby lies the lifeless body of his beloved wife, a grim testament to the horrors of his descent into madness. The music box, a token of their past happiness, serves as a poignant reminder of what could have been, had fate been more forgiving. As the player delivers the final blow to end Gascoigne’s suffering, a whispered plea for forgiveness escapes his lips, a feeble attempt to atone for the atrocities committed in his blood-fueled frenzy.
In search of her ill-fated parents, the youngest daughter ventures out alone into the night and falls prey to one of the countless terrors draping the streets of Yharnam. Upon discovering the death of her sister, the last remaining member of the Gascoigne bloodline ends her own life, leaving behind only sorrow and despair.
Growing up in a social climate marred by poverty and drug abuse, Billy’s induction into a life of crime was as inescapable as Gascoigne’s search for a cure. With an absent father and a mother ensnared by addiction, he was left to navigate the harsh realities of his surroundings alone. Raised in an environment devoid of guidance and stability, Billy sought solace in the only values he knew—those of his impoverished community. He internalized the values he saw around him, a culture that perpetuated materialistic wealth and hyper-sexuality as the predominant metrics for social appraisal.
Lacking the discernment to acknowledge the perils of street life and its residual consequences, Billy romanticized the idea of life as a gangster as he yearned for communal and self-acceptance. This fantasy served as the lone glimmer of light in a dark and desolate upbringing. Understandably, he clung onto this tiny bedrock of hope and fueled it with his greed as he graduated up the ranks of the criminal underworld.
A Dance with the Devil sheds an intimate light on the glamour of immorality in underprivileged communities through the lens of adolescence. As the title suggests, growing up in inner America, a person must decide whether or not to rely on the strength of their of fortitude and spirit or enlist the help of a more nefarious power to survive.
“He fiended for props like addicts with pipes and needles/ So he felt he had to prove to everyone he was evil/ A feeble-minded young man with infinite potential/ The product of a ghetto-bred capitalistic mental/ Coincidentally dropped out of school to sell weed.”
“His primary concern was makin’ a million/ Bein’ the illest hustler that the world ever seen/ He used to fuck movie stars and sniff coke in his dreams/ A corrupted young mind at the age of 13“.
“Tired of the block niggas treatin’ him the same/ He wanted to be major like the cut throats and the thugs/ But when he tried to step to ’em, niggas showed him no love/ They told him any motherfuckin’ coward can sell drugs/ Any bitch nigga with a gun can bust slugs/ any nigga with a red shirt can front like a Blood/ Even Puffy smoked a/ motherfucker up in the club/ But only a real thug can stab someone ’til they die/ Standin’ in front of them, starin’ straight into their eyes”
“So now he had a choice between goin’ back to his life/ Or makin’ money with made men up in the cyph’/ His dreams about cars and ice made him agree/ A hardcore nigga is all he ever wanted to be/ And so he met them Friday night at a quarter to three”
In pursuit of his Scarface fantasy, Billy Jacobs elevated the depravity of his crimes. Succumbing to the allure of wealth and power, he transitioned from peddling marijuana to dealing crack cocaine, preying upon the vulnerability of those struggling to make ends meet—individuals not unlike his own mother, who would work overtime to make ends meet. However, the young initiate would quickly learn that the made men, whom he had supplemented for a father figure, did not respect him and disregarded him as a lowly criminal. Desperate to atone for the neglect of his childhood, Billy yearned for acceptance from men who lived as true gangsters.
Seated at the crossroads of destiny, Billy found himself confronted with a momentous choice: to remain mired in the bleak confines of the ghetto, a familiar landscape wrought with hardship, or to grasp the opportunity to ascend to a realm of opulence and earn the respect of his revered mentors.At this fateful juncture, the devil presented him with an enticing offer—a dance with destiny, promising to grant his most fervent desires.
The initiate knew that he was around men who were well-guarded and he would have to prove his allegiance to attain recognition. These men, whom he admired wholeheartedly, were not impressed by crooks who committed deplorable crimes out of desperation or allegiance. To earn the esteem of real thugs and join the ranks of the brotherhood, Billy had to show that his propensity for lawlessness was intentional and vile.
Under the cover of a sombre, rain-drenched night, the gang seized an unsuspecting woman navigating the deserted streets alone. With callous disregard for her humanity, they subjected her to unspeakable horrors, each member taking turns in a ritual of violence. In his final act of commemoration, Billy stood poised to extinguish the witness to their heinous crime. As he is about to pull the trigger, the pace of the song shifts, which had previously noted a vulnerable if not violent tone, to something far darker as the initiation is completed and the attacked woman is revealed to be his mother; her eyes locking with his in a silent plea. Confronted by the unfathomable depth of his depravity, Billy ends his own life.
“Right before he pulled the trigger and ended her life/ He thought about the cocaine with the platinum and ice/ And he felt strong standin’ along with his new brothers”
“His whole world stopped, he couldn’t even contemplate/ His corruption had successfully changed his fate/ And he remembered how his mom used to come home late/ Workin’ hard for nothin’, because now what was he worth?/ He turned away from the woman that had once given him birth/ And cryin’ out to the sky, ’cause he was lonely and scared/ But only the Devil responded, ’cause God wasn’t there/ And right then he knew what it was to be empty and cold/And so he jumped off the roof and died with no soul”
Although Billy’s tragic demise serves as a poignant cautionary tale about the delusions of grandeur in crime, the overarching theme of the song encapsulates the real trap; patriarchal racialized capitalism. Reality in urban areas for kids of colour is warped by a paucity of resources and facilitated the prison industrial complex by perpetuating a school-to-prison pipeline. Ultimately, the impoverished environment cultivates a cycle of violence within itself. In a 2004 interview on BrownPride.com, the rapper explains, “It was a true story that I made myself more of a part of when I wrote the song, it became an urban legend and was really about how we are killing ourselves and destroying the most valuable resource that the Latino/Black community has, our women.” Immortal technique is holding a mirror to our face as a society and as men. Anyone, including you, could be Billy Jacobs given the circumstances. As the rapper cautions, the beast lies dormant in all of us.
The cyclical ramifications of crime outlined by Technique are parallel to the decay of Yharnam. Rather than addressing the root causes of societal decay, both the church in Yharnam and the system in Technique’s story choose to perpetuate the cycle by using cruel measures to combat its symptoms.. In Yharnam, the church’s decision to continue producing and administering the old blood, despite its transformative and corrupting effects, mirrors society’s tendency to address crime with further violence and oppression rather than addressing its underlying causes. Just as the hunters tasked with eliminating beasts become beasts themselves, those who engage in criminal activity perpetuate a cycle of violence and degradation, ensnaring more individuals in its grasp. As Billy’s crimes escalate, he inadvertently contributes to the proliferation of addiction and despair in his community, mirroring the church’s perpetuation of the beastly scourge. Ultimately, it is the entities that profit from this suffering—the church and the prison industrial complex—that benefit from perpetuating this vicious cycle, while the individuals caught within it suffer endlessly.
In Bloodborne, the Healing Church’s promotion of the old blood as a miraculous elixr parallels real-life social policies fueled by the profit-driven motives of the prison industrial complex. Just as the church uses hunters to eliminate the afflicted, these policies rely on incarceration as a solution to societal issues fueled by the glamorization of crime in mass media. As more individuals are incarcerated, particularly fathers, they are removed from their families and communities, leaving behind a void that young boys may seek to fill through gang affiliation. This perpetuates a cycle where incarcerated fathers inadvertently contribute to the creation of future generations of incarcerated men, mirroring the endless need for hunters in Yharnam.
In the end, the true tragedy lies not in the individual fates of Gascoigne and Billy, but in the societal structures that perpetuate their suffering. It is only by acknowledging and confronting these structures that we can hope to break free from the cycle. Ultimately, we have to be the change that we desire to see in our community. Our ethics cannot be negotiable, if something would be unacceptable for you, it should be unacceptable for others.
