I haven‘t watched episode 2 yet but 1 was rad and this is a cool and fun concept for sure. I think you’re right when you said that the From Software level designers are thinking of the history of their spaces and making them as spaces rather than just videogame levels (or at least, they‘re never not both even if they are primarily the latter). It makes some of Dark Souls’ awkward confusing layouts feel like they make more sense as real spaces repurposed as videogame levels, in the same way thinking of the Asylum Demon's room as a gathering place that was repurposed as part of a asylum does. Well, in Dark Souls, at least. I would have a hard time believing
To provide some feedback, I would love for you to, as you say, way overthink things like the Asylum Demon boss room more, and dig more into what about rooms like that make you think it's a gathering hall of some kind. To my completely untrained eye archeaologically speaking, my imagination does wander off of that starting point--I see a central open air place, maybe even like a grand ballroom with cathedral like acoustic properties, and covered side areas which would dampen the acoustic effect and allow for conversations or more private interactions. The balcony area has a bit of an odd shape for it, but in a ballroom that could be where a musician would sit, and their playing would project out down on to the hall (maybe that's why it doesn't have a guard rail, to not block the sound). Makes me think of an interesting counterintuitive architectural feature of some European gathering spaces from some periods which would feature musicians, where the insider-outsider dichotomy, most often expressed through placing those with more social status on higher more dominant spaces, is flipped; it was a custom at some point to have higher parts of spaces be for the musicians and the lower open areas be for the upper class, so that the music would project down into the gathering space and the lower class musicians could be kept largely out of sight. Apparently during certain periods, this is why musicians were often employed as spies, they were people who nobles wanted to hear but not see, and some surely neglected to worry about how they could hear as well while not being seen...
Also makes my mind wander to the class aspects of the repurposing of spaces. It makes sense to see high class spaces repurposed for low class purposes, but the opposite does not necessarily hold quite as true (at least, if we're talking architecture, there are sure a lot of high class spaces built on top of what the builders would say is low class land). And it must matter *whose* space is going to get repurposed, and why. Perhaps the Undead Asylum was once a high class building, but its status must have been quite diminished for it to be seen as suitable to turn it into something like that. In contrast, since the status of Anor Londo has not been given up on, at least, the idea of repurposing even a spec of it is inconceivable to whoever persists there. Interesting to note the difference there, how it was seen as necessary to repurpose the space the Undead Asylum is now, because that purpose was needed and the space was surely not held in high regard (and, perhaps, the resources or will to create a new building for it were not there), while it was seemingly decided or felt that Anor Londo would sooner be a shell with no purpose, rather than ever be repurposed.
