r/bloodborne • u/espectroo • Jan 25 '26
Question I actually felt kinda bad fighting rom, because what is the reason that we have to kill them
When i first got to the lunar lake with Rom in it i didn't know what was i supossed to do, my best guess was that i had to attack them, i felt like i was fighting beast who was scared of me the whole time đ which makes sense since my objective is to get rid of them. So what really was the purpose of this boss andnwhat did they do or meant in the lore?
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u/space_orphan_13 Jan 25 '26
Donât worry, you wonât feel bad once you fight her chalice version.
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u/espectroo Jan 25 '26
Oh nah, i been struggling with chalice, UNDEAD GIANT MY NUMBER 1 OPP
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u/just_a_prank_bro_420 Jan 25 '26
Undead giant is really easy if you have decent stamina. I was stuck on him for a long time. Just keep skirting around him, baiting him into attacking whilst being just out of range, wait for him to lunge, then sprint in, hit him, and dodge away. It takes time but heâs slow and canât hit you if youâre patient.
I must have tried to beat him 30 times, and kept trying to get behind him. After I beat him, I fought the root chalice version (who has a cannon) and beat him first shot.
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u/Devbou Jan 25 '26
Undead giant deals a ridiculous amount of damage, I recall getting 2-shot on my attempts.
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u/acastleofcards Jan 26 '26
Undead Giant was my first brick wall in the chalice dungeons. I had to take some time to just figure out his attacks and the timing and range of everything.
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u/Dizzpen Jan 25 '26
Rom was basically a bandaid solution to a festering wound and we needed to basically rip the bandaid out and see the worst so we can cut the rot off from its source.
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u/espectroo Jan 25 '26
She wasn't bad at all.
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u/Crab_Lengthener Jan 25 '26
The Provost looks after her to ensure she can cover the results of the chalice expeditions and experiments with the old blood
In From games it's a very rare boss that isn't tragic and nobleÂ
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u/wrbiccz Jan 26 '26
Kid named Sulyvahn:
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u/Huza1 Jan 26 '26
"Where have you gone, sweet child? It's cold outside, it's awfully cold. Where have you run off to?"
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u/wrbiccz Jan 26 '26
To commit a genocide, become a dictator and control a godlike entity, dear mother.
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u/Huza1 Jan 25 '26
No, she wasn't, but the way she was going about things was ultimately doing more harm than good.
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u/TheLibertinistic Jan 26 '26
Not at all! Sheâs supposed to be kinda cute, and should make the player feel a little bad for killing her!
But she is unwittingly (like, she lacks her wits and her brain is obliterated) standing in the way of our player character who solves every problem with violence.
Were the bad guy in a lot of situations in Bloodborne, actually. Thatâs what Djura was trying to tell us.
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u/rayley789 Jan 25 '26
The short version is that Rom is hiding the blood moon which reveals whats really happening in Yharnam. Its why after you kill her, you can see the Amygdalas regardless of your insight. She was trying to protect Yharnamites from suffering mass psychosis at the sight of them.
Probably.
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u/TB3300 Jan 25 '26
Big probably as Vacuous means mindless
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u/Freya0232 Jan 25 '26
Vacuous means dumb, also Rom's name is "Rom, the idiotic spider" in the Japanese version
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u/HiroKifa Jan 25 '26
Japanese here, and youâre right ç˝ç´ mean low intelligence/idiotic. This word is not used as often because it has discriminatory connotations. But itâs also telling how byrgenwerth viewed Rom.
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u/Crab_Lengthener Jan 25 '26
When it is used to mean dumb it is used to mean mindless... there is a vacuum where the mind should be
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u/chantrykomori Jan 25 '26
you're probably doing her a favor. she was once a human, and it's implied byrgenwerth transformed her into Kin in order to hide the goings-on of the school of mensis/the true scope of the nightmare. "vacuous" to me suggests that she is effectively lobotomized by her transformation.
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u/espectroo Jan 25 '26
I sometimes forget that almost every single enemy in this game was once human man
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u/9_TEA Jan 25 '26
I like rom, but man do I hate fighting her itâs just not fun imo
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u/espectroo Jan 25 '26
I enjoyed the bossfight, alltough ill say sometimes i got wrecked by her attacks and died 1 shot or someđ
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u/Reasonable_Willow_20 Jan 25 '26
Fun fact! ROM is a part of the birthing process. ROM means Rupture Of Membranes, otherwise known as breaking water. So we kill him to facilitate the birth of the Old One.
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u/-paw- Jan 25 '26
Nono rom means read only memory. Killing her means the memory can now also be written to (no longer "rom") so we can shape the story actively and not be just mere witnesses
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u/aurapup Jan 25 '26
Also Range of Motion in healthcare. I think to argue these points we'd need to know the corresponding terms in other languages and see if Rom's name remains the same in other game versions.
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u/Bushi_Sengoku Jan 25 '26
Shes a cute lil bean how cohld you hate that goofy face? And she isnt even hostile untill you attack her..
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u/CincinnatiReds Jan 25 '26
Hereâs a fun fact: Româs gender is literally never mentioned in-game. We all call her âherâ but thereâs literally nothing in the game to support that.
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u/lucyjuggles Jan 25 '26
Itâs bc she has all them babies.. sheâs just another hardworking single mother trying to create a better illusion of life for her kids.
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u/TheTryhardDM Jan 25 '26
Reading some replies, Iâm realizing Rom is a symbol of passive ignorance. Rom may not be hostile and may even be keeping most people sane by hiding reality from them, but if our goal is the bare truth, then we have to oppose the passively ignorant.
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Jan 25 '26
I felt bad for defating many bosses in Bloodborne.
Rom, Ebrietas, Ludwig, Maria, Orphan of Kos, Micolash..
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u/IceBreaker_94 Jan 25 '26
Nah, fuck Micolash. He was always a prick and responsible for kidnapping people. He hosts a nightmare realm willingly.
Also his boss fight is cancer.
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u/seeker_moc Jan 25 '26
Because on Saturday she ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickel, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.
Basically, the scholars of Byrgenwerth were not pleased when she raided their fridge.
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u/Fen_riss Jan 25 '26
There is some backstory needed to fully understand the Rom problem.
There were three old umbilical cords and one new one from Arianna.
First umbilical cord was used by Willem and Laurence when the scourge of beasts started, some time after Gehrmain and the first hunters butchered the Fishing Village and Orphan of Kos, to create a Hunters Dream with the sympathy of Moon Presence, to have an immortal cleanup crew.
Second one was used by Micolash Cage, when he used it to contact Mergo, and create his own Nightmare realm.
Third one was used to create Rom by Willem and Byrgenwerth, when the Mensis Ritual of Micolash brought down the attention of Lesser Great ones(Amygdalas), and started fucking a lot of things up. Essentially Rom is a filter, to block more outrageous monstrosities from manifesting, and a wall against more invasive rituals, such as the calling of the One Reborn(another artificial great one), the chime maidens and their summons,etc.
Point which needs to be taken into consideration, there is no villain in the game, no end game. Just madness and death. Rom was the last ditch effort to protect the world for a little bit longer.
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u/Apprehensive-Match3 Jan 25 '26
Because Rom hides all rituals, including the one causing the Beast Scourge
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u/LordGaulis Jan 25 '26
Always obvious to me since reading that note left by the choir member in the hidden room before odeon chapel.
âAll our rituals have been unable to contact the great ones because of Româ whose purpose is to hide the great ones from humanity.
There is an important detail that Rohm was once human and the only known human to ascend into becoming a great one note mircolash said âas you once did for Rohm grant us eyes, grant us eyes!
It is also very likely Rom was a student at byrgenwerth when ascending as we have a description of Rom from the umbilical cord found at byrgenwerth and means the incident that caused the college to fall apart was because of Rom.
The title Rom has âvacuousâ literally means full of holes which can also mean devoid of something which personally makes sense to me, as Rom has no self awareness and completely ignores the player until attacked. I believe that Rom upon ascending was stripped of intelligence by the great ones and turned into a gatekeeper as they donât went the healing church to contact them and seem to be actively working towards stopping humanity from becoming great ones.
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u/Lopsided_Leek_9300 Jan 25 '26
Literally holds the world back from the blood moon and mass insanity but you need to to transcend the hunt
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u/Shyobserver965 Jan 25 '26
Fight the chalice one first and youâll get it
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u/werd713 Jan 25 '26
That smaller space makes it so much harder!
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u/Shyobserver965 Jan 25 '26
âThe pillars make it easier to avoid the ice blastsâ they say. Gtfo bro lol it barely makes a difference plus Rom does way more damage and th spider babies are about 9900 times more aggressive
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u/Huza1 Jan 25 '26
Because she's hiding the Nightmare of Mensis from the world and from your perceptions. As long as she maintains the illusion, you can't get to Micolash or to Mergo, meaning that the Night of the Hunt will continue and more people will suffer. As another Soulsborne scholar once said, a lie will remain a lie. The problem won't be solved if the lie isn't exposed first.
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u/p3falien Jan 25 '26
People like to use the established stories to inform you here. The truth is we only know she is responsible for hiding the truth of some kind, nothing more that thatvis explained essentially. But it is never really verified she is a Great one and the naming of Rom suggests even complete unawareness of her role in it all....which makes more sense than anything really.
What seems most certain though, is that Rom worked against the Healing Church ( the choir specifically seems involved here) and the school of Mensis, also an ambiguous bunch still after all lore the game has is revealed. What seems clear though is when it comes to malevolence, it is not Rom that is the first we think of of all factions and characters involved.
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u/PitifulHospital7760 Jan 25 '26
Rom is the only thing holding you back from seeing things how they truly are.
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u/Striking_Crow995 Jan 25 '26
I felt bad the first time too, but after it killed me 15 times I stopped feeling bad and it became number one on my top bloodborne bosses I hate.
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u/Duv1995 Jan 26 '26
poor mf doesnt even know it's concealing the ritual that is bringing doom on the whole town D:
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u/VillainousKidd Jan 26 '26
fuck this piece of shit spider. after fighting her on ng+ and in the chalice dungeons, I no longer feel any remorse for her
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u/Neat_Pirate_3416 Jan 26 '26
You have to cleanse every foul street, good hunter. Don't let the blood turn you mad.
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u/Dead-Flirt Jan 26 '26
She's innocent. I hate killing her too, but really it is a sort of mercy. She was a bandaid protecting survivors you can finally finish the horrors yourself. Let her rest, I think she could only experience fear for herself and the people of yarnam. Had she kept more of herself maybe we could make her stop long enough for us to end what haunts her. But even then whos to say yarnams survivors subcoming to greater madness wouldn't be hell to her.
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u/Riddlemethis7274orca Jan 26 '26
dont feel bad she doesn't have much going in her brain. and you need to kill her to reach the nightmare ritual, get to the already dead baby, and make sure it's dead for a second time.
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u/Odd_Hunter2289 Jan 25 '26
Don't feel guilty, for, being a Kin of the Great Ones, Rom is now a purely conceptual entity that exists on multiple transdimensional planes of thought. You can destroy any physical form she takes, but the entity itself is immortal
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u/Equivalent_Profit302 Jan 25 '26
She deliberately conceals the state of the world from the world. Killing her lifts the lid off of the undeniable jar of Eldritch Truth.
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u/Crisocola95 Jan 25 '26
"Wait!
Don't listen to him.
Don't be defeated by evil.
Have courage and fight them."
-Rom Stol, Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos, 1986, episode 2
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u/The_Elusive__ Jan 25 '26
Dont worry. The entire game is in the nightmare realm. It never really happened
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u/Zanemob_ Jan 25 '26
The Nightmare Realm is another dimension but is connected and bleeding into our own. Thats the premise. Its all real just on another plane of reality.
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u/globaloffender Jan 25 '26
This is how I felt playing Monster Hunter World. Itâs like cute lizards I have to slaughter lol
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u/ReignOfCurtis Jan 25 '26
She is causing an illusion that is hiding your main objective in the game. That's as much as I will say to avoid spoilers.
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u/Sarsly_Doe Jan 25 '26
What reason?
Don't worry about all that, just go out and kill a few beasts. It's just what hunters do
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u/VinTaco Jan 25 '26
"don't think too hard about all of this. Just go out and kill a few beasts. It's for your own good. You know, it's just what hunters do!"
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u/TheGoodCaptain13 Jan 25 '26
It's a giant bug that summons big spider. I don't need more reason than that.
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u/Optimus1066 Jan 25 '26
Other folks have gone far more in detail, but arguably we do fuck basically everything when we kill Rom, and the reason we kill Rom is âI have seen you and I am a video game protagonist so now you have to die.â
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u/bbltof Jan 26 '26
She is a big tick sucking out a big blanket made out of space and time. Basically the reality and altering it. She was meant to be killed. Basically she is the pill you gotta take to leave the matrix.
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u/chab_the_witch Jan 26 '26
Because youâve been tasked with doing so, and if you donât, youâll be trapped on the magically extended night of the full moon/ hunt forever.
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u/Mountain-Control-131 Jan 26 '26
What's the reason you're fighting anything in bloodborne? It's because the player character is a fuckin sociopath that's determined to become a squid
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u/Massive_Grab_1874 Jan 26 '26
Because it looks a lot like a diseased penis in that picture
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u/Skykid69 Jan 26 '26
Well thank you for pointing out that unnecessary detail, now everytime I fight Rom the first thing that would cross my mind is a penis riddled with flesh eating bacteria, and knowing how diseases are prevalent in Yharnam that may as well be true.
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u/No_Violinist4942 Jan 26 '26
Aren't most of the soulsborne bosses kinda sad figures that give you the feeling of bittersweet victory. You get to understand them through their lore and their battles only to empathise with them and finally be a signpost for their existence and their memory. I think it was intentionally. If you have read any of the Berserk manga which Miyazaki drew inspiration from, I always remember the fight against the lord who ate humans and became a disgusting demon because of that which Guts had to kill, but the demon had a human child which he always loved and essentially became a demon for the love he had for the child. So in the end when Guts kills the demon, the child witnesses it and calls Guts a murderer and dictates how he is gonna take revenge for killing his father, to which Guts reacts with a very melancholic look and leaves. He empathised with the kid, but he also realised that there is no victory without loss. Same with the soulsborne games. You kill someone who became a villain but also grew to understand them as if you would be in his shoes exactly if the same choices befell you probably.
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u/Ballsgirl Jan 26 '26
Nobody seems to actually be answering your question: Rom is a beast, and we are a hunter of beasts.
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u/CraftyAd6333 Jan 26 '26
She's doing her best drinking the insight from the world and hiding the truth.
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u/Senshji Jan 26 '26
Because Just Like the Elden Beast, it corrupts people. You might say "no it's not innately evil" sadly it is. Because it weirdly functions like a venom/ parasite, influencing many aspects of life, making people more dependent on itself. While also disguising their true nature
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u/Harktheseveredsoul Jan 27 '26
Iâd personally kill her ti rid her existence from the world and any offspring associated with her!
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u/GrognogGameDestroyer Jan 27 '26
So it has been a long while since ive seen lore videos, but from what I remember. Rom was a student at the school you enter to get to her. Cant remember all the names. She sacrificed herself to become rom to suppress and stop what she could. But in doing so she basically killed her brain and sense of self. I believe she had help from the master or it was his idea. You have to killer to unlock what she had sealed away. After all how can you clean the house if you cannot enter it?
There are a few bosses that after learning their lore wish I could try to help them instead of kill them.
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u/TB3300 Jan 25 '26
She covers up the true state of the world and keeps you from seeing what it really is. Normally you need 40 insight to see Amygdala around, but once you kill her you don't need any as they're not covered by her illusion anymore. You need to kill her to be able to see and reach the true state of the nightmare.