Line Individualism - Boc
Heed the Spoiler Warning!
Boc is the demi-human (read: goblin) seamer and manservant of the player, should they chose to save him during the game. He speaks like the greater half of the game’s cast in a Cornish English accent, and moreover he is the only demi-human that actually can speak in the game itself making him rather unique. His tale is almost too cruelly classic towards the tradition of fairy-tales.
As a humble Pinnochio of sorts, Bock encounters the player whilst he is hidden away as a bush in a rather unseemly part of wilderness, and it is only by random chance that you will hear him shout:
“Oi! You there!”
“Could you help us out, cully?”
Corresponding to the Japanese original version:
おーい、あんた
オイラを助けておくれよ
Ooi, anta
Oira o tasukete okureyo
“Hey, you!”
“Could ye help me out?”
Two things of note, he use of oira (オイラ) a rural first person pronominal, anta (あんた), an informal second person pronominal that is derived from anata (あなた), the standard if more formal original version – this probably conveys the cully, an archaic word for “friend”. This gives Boc an air of rustic amiability, presumably reflecting his Cornish accent, that in English pop-culture is associated with people from the countryside.
Later on, though, as the player helps the poor sap with his ongoing trouble with his feral kinsmen, he grows more and more supplicant towards the player eventually calling them “Master”, in the original script ご主人さま (goshuujin-sama, “Master”). This does figure into the game’s story of the player becoming the Elden Lord, where he will finally if the progress of the story permits it call them “my Lord,” which reflects the original’s わが王 (waga ou, “my king”).
If we look at one of his later lines that reflect this meek diction in action,
お願いです、ご主人さま
お針子として、貴方にお仕えさせてください
Onegai desu, goshujinsama
Ohariko toshite anata ni otsukaete kudasai
“I have a wish, Master."
"Could You please consider me serving You as Your seamer, Worship?”
Here his language is completely humble, in the register of kenjougo (“humble language”), replete with the auxiliary request verb kudasaru in the honorific mode of otsukaete kudasai , “Could (I) please serve (you)”, lit. the honorific お (o) + 仕える (tsukaeru, to serve) + 下さる (kudasaru, “to deign to grant”) – thus reflecting his respect towards the player, even if extreme. He still doesn’t stop from using oira in his polite dialogue, though he does also use bokku me, ボックめ (“I, humble Boc”):
ああでも、それでも、できるだけボックめにお申し付けください
Aa demo, soredemo, dekiru dake bokku me ni omoushitsuke kudasai
Oh, but please permit humble Boc to do whatever he can in his power”
And,
こんな醜いオイラを、それでも、美しいと言ってくださるのですか？
Konna minikui oira o, soredemo utskushii to itte kudasaru no desu ka?
“Even then, fer ugly me t’ be called ‘beautiful’ by You, Master”
As well as him also referring to his mother with the honorific kaa-sama (母さま), really renders him an a times utterly despairing character, whose lot in life is greatly rendered fortunate by the player themself showing the mercy and attention to Boc by allowing him to become their personal seamer, whereby the player then can modify their armour.
His final fate however of wanting to become beautiful is left for the player to decide.