what's in a miracle--revisiting "Blasphemous" through post-structuralism

So I'm still not done playing Blasphemous--I have yet to achieve the "true" ending due to some convoluted mechanics and missed items (probably the only critique I have of the game so far. I had to look up that I had missed something pretty important that locked me out of this true ending). But, I did get the base-game good and bad ending, and I can say that I sort of understand what's going on; at least comparatively, I have a loose understanding of the plot in this game than I did when I first wrote about it. Now the inner workings of the lore are still somewhat lost on me, but I'm hoping with my new game+ run (and getting that elusive true ending) that I'll wrap my head around it.

https://x.com/BlasphemousGame/status/1471872904736432132/photo/2, the Penitent One getting ready to fight the Ten Piedad.

One of the main things (events? beings?) in this game is called the Miracle--you get an explanation right at the opening of the game that the Miracle is a physical manifestation of repentance, guilt, mourning; the Miracle then either blesses or punishes those ridden with guilt or remorse. Guilt, as it were, is actually a mechanic of this game. Each time the Penitent One (the player character) dies, he accumulates guilt that decreases his maximum fervor, which basically makes it so that he can't cast as many spells (called prayers in the game). These religious ideas are heavily played on throughout the game, from the lore to the visual designs. Hell, the name of the sword wielded by the Penitent One is called "Mea Culpa," which means "through my fault" in Latin. It's commonly used as a confession in the Catholic church. This game is deeply entrenched in Catholic imagery specifically, and takes a lot of inspiration from Spanish culture (due to the creators of the game being based in Spain).

But the Miracle is seemingly "equally pious and cruel," which I have a hard time believing after getting two of the three endings in this game (also, as far as I know, there is no "Miracle" in Catholicism, besides the miracles attributed to God's action and revelation. There are miracles, but no Miracle). I can concede that the Miracle is something that people "will never be able to unravel," as stated by one of the characters in the game. But if you can't know the motives of this divine thing, how can you truly say that it is pious or cruel at all? I think from a religious perspective, this game creates a really interesting dynamic between the player character and the rest of the world--just as the expectation surrounding the word "Miracle" is subverted, so too is the title of the game, "Blasphemous."

The reason I mentioned post-structuralism here is precisely because of this dichotomy, and how expectations for both concepts are subverted. Miracle and blasphemy have very clear connotations attached to each, and yet the Miracle of Blasphemous pretty consistently turns people into monsters or like, living trees or something. One of the main bosses of the game dunked her face in boiling oil so people would stop worshipping her beauty, to which the Miracle decided that the wound on her face would continuously burn and never heal. She was canonized through the order "Our Lady of the Charred Visage." Her continuously boiling face was seen as a miracle. When you kill this boss (and most every boss in the game), the Latin phrase "REQUIEM AETERNAM" flashes on screen, which translates to "eternal rest."

So then, the signs in this game are warped beyond typical understanding--which I do find ironic in the context of something like post-structuralism, a theory founded on the philosophy of individuals like Nietzsche (who held that God is dead). Post-structuralism argues that any attempt to find meaning, or the "center," destabilizes the entire system you were trying to attribute meaning to in the first place. These centers are created for the system--meaning is created to stabilize and comfort our own desires.

So when a game, in a rather post-structuralist manner, reverse the meanings of two widely accepted religious signs, a new meaning can be attributed both to the game and the inspiration it pulls from. Suddenly, Blasphemous forms as a critique of religious systems and the corruption within that system. As such, whenever the phrase "Summa Blasphemia" ("Highest Blasphemy") appeared on my screen after defeating the final boss, it didn't really feel like what I had done was a bad thing. Perhaps blasphemous means something else entirely.