A common misreading of Arianna's storyline interprets her celestial child as evidence of sexual assault by Oedon, framing it within Earth patriarchal structures. This interpretation fundamentally misunderstands both the mechanics of what happens to Arianna and the nature of cosmic horror in Bloodborne.
"Something that's really interesting to me too about Arianna is that her forced pregnancy is a thing that happens while within Oedon Chapel, a place that is meant to be a sanctuary for her, and it is forced on her by the patriarch and 'holy force' of that chapel, Oedon himself."
(comment by @Flevir on a youtube video.)The celestial children in Bloodborne are directly based on the Demon Child from Berserk. In Berserk, the Demon Child is not a separate entity created through assault—it is Guts and Casca's human child, conceived naturally, that becomes corrupted and transformed by Femto's violation during the Eclipse. The child was already there; the horror is in its transmutation.
Bloodborne uses the same framework. Arianna's celestial child is not created by Oedon—it is a human pregnancy transformed into something cosmic.
Arianna is explicitly a sex worker, identifiable through her location in the Cathedral Ward's pleasure district and her dialogue. In a Victorian-adjacent setting without modern contraception, pregnancy is an occupational reality for women in her profession.
Arianna was most likely already pregnant when she arrived at Oedon Chapel. The celestial child is not Oedon "impregnating" her—it is her existing human pregnancy being corrupted by proximity to cosmic forces.
Oedon is described as formless, existing only in blood and voice. The chapel bears Oedon's presence—not as a physical entity, but as a permeating cosmic force that saturates the space.
When Arianna, already pregnant, spends extended time in a space saturated with Oedon's formless presence:
This is transformation horror, not assault. The violation is not sexual—it is the corruption of what was already growing inside her.
The terror of Arianna's situation is not "forced pregnancy by a masculine deity." It is far more insidious:
Your body is no longer entirely your own. The child you were carrying—whether wanted or unwanted—is no longer human. The sanctuary that promised safety has saturated you with something that changed you from the inside. You gave birth, but what emerged was wrong.
This is profoundly more horrifying than magical conception. Arianna's agency and profession are acknowledged—she was pregnant through her own circumstances. But the cosmic forces around her transformed what should have been familiar into something alien.
Interpreting this through Earth patriarchal frameworks:
The tragedy of Oedon Chapel is not "masculine protection turned invasive." It is that sanctuary itself can be contaminated. Safety is an illusion when cosmic forces permeate the very space meant to shelter you.
The Chapel Dweller genuinely tries to help. The space genuinely offers physical protection from the hunt. But protection from beasts does not mean protection from transmutation. The horror is that even in sanctuary, your body can betray you—not through assault, but through change.
Reading Arianna's story as "cosmic transformation of existing pregnancy" rather than "patriarch forces pregnancy":
Arianna's horror is not that Oedon assaulted her. Her horror is that she carried something for months, felt it grow, gave birth—and what emerged was not the child she expected, human or otherwise, but something fundamentally other.
That is body horror. That is cosmic horror. That is the terror of transformation without consent—not of the pregnancy itself, but of what the pregnancy became.