History Fridge / SekiroShadowsDieTwice

-> '''The Sculptor''': ''No matter what I do, every Buddha I carve is an incarnation of wrath. Thus is the fate of those who owe a deep karmic debt. You'll understand when you try to carve one for yourself one day.''
** Related to that, in order to develop the Prosthetic Art technique, one has to kill over and over again to refine a tool made for killing and how to use them better. By the time when the Sculptor developed the Living Force technique, where one imbues their sword with a flame, he has killed too many, and the flames of hatred has begun to corrupt him [[spoiler:until he [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie becomes the Demon of Hatred]]]]. Likewise, when you need experience to level up, you have to [[LevelGrinding go out of your way to slaughter everything on your path]], essentially walking the same path as the Sculptor. By the time when you have obtained the Sparkling Axe, Leaping Axe, Okinaga's Flame Vent and Living Force, your movesets have become unnervingly silimar to the [[spoiler:Demon of Hatred]]. At this point, [[NotSoDifferent what makes you different to the Sculptor?]] And what stops you from sharing the same fate as him when your lust for blood and power is left unchecked?

* Related to the [[spoiler:Demon of Hatred]], in order to develop the Prosthetic Art technique, one has to kill over and over again. By the time when the Sculptor developed the Living Force technique, where one imbues their sword with a flame, he has killed too many, and the flames of hatred has begun to corrupt him [[spoiler:until he [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie becomes the Demon of Hatred]]]]. Likewise, when you need experience to level up, you have to [[LevelGrinding go out of your way to slaughter everything on your path]], essentially walking the same path as the Sculptor. [[spoiler:What stops you from becoming the next ''Demon of Hatred'' when your lust for blood and power is left unchecked?]]
-> '''Living Force Item Description''': ''The Sculptor retired the Shinobi Prosthetic after developing this technique. He'd gone too far, killed too many. The flames of hatred had begun to manifest...''

* An underwater area of Senpou temple is full of Buddhist statues. This isn't uncommon as flawed or broken statues are often tossed aside. However, all the statues down there are intact and the hole seems like it was always there, not a sink hole or a flooded inhabited area as there's not exits expect for the top. It seems like the monks didn't just [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis become their own antithesis]], but have rejected the Buddha entirely. While some Buddhists do believe in demi-gods and demons, they usually pray to Buddha or some kind of guardian. Given that you can catch some of the monks in pray and see how far they have fallen, just what sort of creature are they praying to? The white snakes would be a good guess, but there's nothing to suggest this, but there's plenty of evidence that they love centipedes which have a pretty negative connotation in Buddhist mythology.

** Genichiro Ashina's [[spoiler: Way of Tomoe form]] has only one health bar [[spoiler: both times you fight him. This makes sense as the first time you've already dealt him two death blows. He strips down his armor and imbues his sword with lightning to go at you once more, but is obviously battered enough that one more death blow allows Sekiro to finish him. During his potential second encounter he clearly survives your first death blow and can go on fighting. Genichiro, however, is now convinced fighting you is useless as he simply can't defeat Sekiro, and decides to sacrifice his life with his Mortal Blade instead in order to bring a prime Isshin back, who is far more capable of giving you one hell of a fight.]]

** Genichiro Ashina's [[spoiler: Way of Tomoe form]] has only one one health bar [[spoiler: both times you fight him. This makes sense as the first time you've already dealt him two death blows. He strips down his armor and imbues his sword with lightning to go at you once more, but is obviously battered enough that one more death blow allows Sekiro to finish him. During his potential second encounter he clearly survives your first death blow and can go on fighting. Genichiro, however, is now convinced fighting you is useless as he simply can't defeat Sekiro, and decides to sacrifice his life with his Mortal Blade instead in order to bring a prime Isshin back, who is far more capable of giving you one hell of a fight.]]

** Genichiro Ashina's [[spoiler: Way of Tomoe form]] has only one one health bar [[spoiler: both times you fight him. This makes sense as the first time you've already dealt him two death blows. He strips down his armor and imbues his sword with lightning to go at you once more, but is obviously battered enough that one more death blows allows Sekiro to finish him. During his potential second encounter he clearly survives your first death blow and can go on fighting. Genichiro, however, is now convinced fighting you is useless as he simply can't defeat Sekiro, and decides to sacrifice his life with his Mortal Blade instead in order to bring a prime Isshin back, who is far more capable of giving you one hell of a fight.]]

** Related to that, [[spoiler:the Guardian Ape having a second phase at all has a couple of clues, especially one outside of the game: First, all bosses have either more than one health bar or have more than one phase, so the Guardian Ape having only one health bar should be your first clue. Second, he's got a sword stuck in the middle his neck, which is later used to decapitate him, which you might ignore at first because it means he's resilient but should also mean that the sword not bothering him is the next clue. Third, you can potentially encounter the Headless before encountering the Guardian Ape, and that infested immortal enemies exist, which you can also encounter before facing him. Finally, many of FromSoftware games '''do not''' show decapitations and the process of it onscreen: all of the ones that do occur happen offscreen, so while there is a shock factor of having one shown at all, FromSoftware does not do that unless there is something '''very important''' why they're showing one now. Hence, decapitating the Guardian Ape as the finishing move should clue you in that he has a second phase as a headless enemy.]]

* Of the bosses with multiple health bars, there are two that don't display their second health-bar. Why is this? Well, [[spoiler: Lady Butterfly]] is a MasterOfIllusion, so for the first phase you were merely FightingAShadow. And as for [[spoiler: HeadlessApe]], he ''did'' only have one health bar, [[spoiler:it's the spirit possessing his body that has the second.]]

* When buying a gold purse, you pay an extra 10 percent more than what you normally get. (ie. Light coin purse costs 110 when using it nets you 100.) Why the extra? Someone needed to make a profit making the bag as well as the materials needed to hold the gold so you don't lose it.

* As you progress through the game cost to buy Spirit Emblems rises. Spirit Emblems are described as being manifestations of regret. Sekiro starts the game a broken and failed Shinobi, as the game progresses his character develops and he begins to gain a sense of purpose, meaning that manisfestions of regret don't come to him as easily.

* In the ''Immortal Severance'' ending, [[spoiler:Sekiro would take up the profession of the Sculptor with Emma, who returns his prosthetic to him, believing that a shinobi will seek strength, just as he once did. However, there is a darker interpretation about becoming the new Sculptor: Sekiro would be gradually plagued by the very same karmic debt and wrath haunting the Sculptor until he gets consumed by his wrath. You don't just become the Sculptor, you become the next ''[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie Demon of Hatred]]'', and this ViciousCycle would go on forever.]]

* In the ''Immortal Severance'' ending, [[spoiler:Sekiro would take up the profession of the Sculptor with Emma, who returns his prosthetic to him, believing that a shinobi will seek strength, just as he once did. However, there is a darker interpretation about becoming the new Sculptor: Sekiro would be gradually plagued by the very same karmic debt and wrath haunting the Sculptor, until he gets consumed by his wrath like the Sculptor. You don't just become the Sculptor, you become the next ''[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie Demon of Hatred]]'', and this ViciousCycle would go on forever.]]

* Of the bosses with multiple health bars, there are two that don't display their second health-bar. Why is this? Well, [[spoiler: LadyButterfly]] is a MasterOfIllusion, so for the first phase you were merely FightingAShadow. And as for [[spoiler: HeadlessApe]], Well... he did only have one health bar, [[spoiler:it's the spirit possessing his body that has the second.]]

* Potentially coincidence, but Sekiro does not look like a typical modern depiction of a Ninja, but it makes sense considering real life Ninja were Samurai in disguise.