#I SWEAR IT'S NOT BECAUSE I THINK HE'S A NOSK I SWEAR I SWEAR | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

featherlouise · 1 year

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how do you imagine it to go? :0 - 👹

I WAS planning on saving it till I get my comic out but it'll honestly probably be a bit of a while till then soooo

BEWARE this turned out a LOT longer than I expected lmfao (and I change writing styles like 3 times)

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Basically, Hornet, Herrah and WL are in the castle gardens having a picnic. Both queens are just chatting bc, for all Herrah despises PK, she actually gets along p well with WL, while Hornet is munching on a sandwich.

Then WL feels a sudden and intense mix of despair, pain, grief from the other end of her and PK's bond. (bc I interpret it as like. A shared soul kinda thing??? They can kinda project each other's emotions n shit) She's never felt these emotions from her husband before, nevermind anything so strong, so she immediately knows something is very wrong.

She rushes out of the room with barely a word of goodbye, which is INCREDIBLY out of character since she's generally the most calm and polite person in any given situation, so Herrah figured it'd be best to follow, and on the way out she tells a retainer to keep an eye on Hornet, telling the princess that WL needs help and she can't come along bc it might be dangerous

Which then spurs Hornet to follow her mother, bc she's not a baby, she can handle herself. And what if her mum needs help and she's not there?? Obviously she HAS to go. To protect her mum. And WL. But mostly her mum.

WL and Herrah make it to PK's workshop at p much the same time, and they're greeted with the sight of PK cradling the Pure Vessel to his chest, one hand carding through their hair in a mockery of comfort. He's kinda just. Staring off into the middle distance, and the tears streaming down his face are left to drip down his chin and into the vessel's hair. It's like he doesn't even realise he's crying.

Herrah, who had initially opened her mouth to loudly demand an explanation, recognises the situation for what it is: a parent's grief. It's something she's never experienced herself (thank the gods) but she's seen that exact look on the faces of her people after another child is found dead at the hands of a nosk. It's not an expression she ever expected to see on the Pale Wyrm's face, but nevertheless, she grapples together as much compassion as she can and begins, "Wyrm..."

That seems to startle the King out of his thoughts, and he whips his head around, subconsciously cradling the vessel even closer, and staining his hands and robes even further with the ichor that's slowly seeping out of a large hole in their chest.

A hole. In their chest. Tinted orange.

"what the fuck."

The King looks between both queen's, an almost pleading look in his eyes, before seeming to steel himself, and opening his mouth to speak.

*BANG*

The doors suddenly swing open to reveal a tiny princess, waving around her wooden training nail, grinning and bouncing on the balls of her feet,

"HEY MAMA!! I know you said it might be dangerous but I swear I can help-

"..Holly??"

The little girl's eyes are fixed on the still form of the vessel, and Herrah decides in that moment that she needs to move now. Everything else can wait until later, her baby does NOT need to see this.

She crouches in front of Hornet, and gently takes her face in one hand,

“Look at me baby, c’mon let’s get-“

"They're gonna be okay, right??" Her eyes are drifting over her mother's shoulder, taking in the sight of her father, crying, holding her sibling like they'll disappear if he loosens his grip. They're still. Too still. They're never this still, even when they're pretending to be a statue, and especially not around her.

Herrah takes her face in both her hands this time, and Hornet has no other choice but to look at the forlorn look on her face, "Honey I don't think-"

"NO!!" She tears herself away from her mother and begins to run towards her fallen sibling, intending to shake them, kick them, bite them, anything that'll make them wake up because,

"THEY PROMISED!! They said they'd play hide and seek with me if I was good at dinner time today!! So they HAVE to wake up!!" But her mother grabs her by the waist and holds her to her chest before she can take more than two steps, enduring the kicking and punching and scratching that her daughter rains down upon her, anger slowly teetering off into sobs,

"They promised..."

It's all Herrah can do to cradle her child, offering empty condolences, shushing her and slowly rocking back and forth, until she eventually tires herself out enough to fall into a restless sleep.

The King and Queen look at her as she stands up,

"I'm going to put Hornet to bed, and when I return I expect you to have pulled yourself together, Wyrm, enough to tell me what the fuck has happened in here."

The doors decidedly don't slam on the way out, if only to keep her sleeping daughter from waking up.

#THIS IS VERY RUSHED AND I HAVENT PROOF READ IT #BUT THIS IS BASICALLY IT #some dialogue here and there isn't quite right but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#this is p much what I've had swimming in my head #ALSO #herrah has DEFINITELY told hornet what the symptoms of infection are #so she knows what she's looking at when she walks into that workshop #hollow fkin dies au #feather writes #ig #I'll prolly go thru the rest of my posts and add that to anything I've written a fair amount on

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abyssembraced · 1 year

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Hollow Knight, nyaturally XD

Send me a fandom and I'll tell you my blorbos!

Blorbo: GHOST!! Ghost!! My baby. My Little Guy. I adore them. So Much. And, as you can clearly see on my blog: can confirm, Many Thoughts about Ghost agssgsh.

I also wanna give a special shoutout to Hornet too, because I love her, but she just doesn't fit into any of the categories here, sadly.

Skrunkly: Hey guess what, this is. Also Ghost! I'd rather try to stick to one character per category, but like, c'mon dgdgdsh. I guess I could cheat and say all the baby vessels for this one, since they're all cute, but. Deep down you and I both know I'm talking about Ghost agshfbshds

Scrimblo Bimblo: Mato!! Dad Mato!! All the nail masters really (with Sheo in second place among them), they all deserve more love, but Mato's my favourite <3 My man said he considered Ghost his kid and then I immediately liked him lmao

Glup Shitto: Does Nosk count as obscure enough for this? Because I love Nosk lmao. They became kind of a meme among my friends after I repeatedly got my ass beat by them and needed my friend to help me so I didn't lose all my geo ashshdsg. In my defence, it was kinda late at night and I really wasn't in the mood to fight a boss at that time. I did redeem myself in Godhome, though! And whenever I end up replaying Hollow Knight I swear I will do better dgdgdhsh

Poor Little Meow Meow: Uhhhhhhh Zote. I think he's funny, okay? Dgdhdsh. He can be annoying sometimes, yes, but that can also be funny. And some of his precepts seem to hint at him having some sort of tragic past?? Which is. Interesting. But anyway, unpopular? Yes. Pathetic? Absolutely. Therefore he is the true poor little meow meow of Hollow Knight asgshdf

Horse Plinko: Mmmm probably still Zote dgdgsh. Maybe Tiso too, but actually I just reread his dialogue and... He doesn't seem like as much of an asshole as I remember? So maybe he's okay. But both of these would be more lighthearted, silly teasing n stuff regardless

Eeby Deeby: Get in there, Pale King. Probably the Radiance too. Maybe down in superhell they can actually learn to resolve their differences dgshshs.

But also, fuck the Brooding Mawlek. Why does it have more health than Sheo does on attuned. Its fight is so long and frustrating. Me 🤝 Tiso: Hating the Brooding Mawlek dgdhssh

#ooc #ask #tazmilyxfamily #.rp meme #((i *do* think sheo has too little health on attuned for an end-of-pantheon boss))#((like. you start getting into the groove of fighting him and then he dies. and then you just sit there like ''oh. that's it?'' dghdhsh))#((but that does NOT make brooding mawlek any better))

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flame-shadow · 3 years

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Thoughts on areas like the Soul Sanctum, Deepnest, or the Mantis's area?

(My brain doesn't wish to cooperate with the name)

you’re going to get all three because two of those areas are faves of mine and the last one has one of my fave boss fights :3c

[i don’t have the wiki pulled up or anything so obligatory disclaimer that i might misremember some things. also, im gonna throw all of this under the cut because this is going to be more of a stream of consciousness than an actually coherent thing]

SOUL SANCTUM

let’s just get this out of the way first - love love love love love the music holy shit. it’s not something i’d listen to when i want to chill out, but oooohhhhh those organs. and when the whispers are in there too?? and “Mage Under Glass” with the laughter??? yesss

Anyway. In general, I’m a sucker for unethical laboratories in stories and games. There’s so much potential for fucked up and creative ideas within canon and in the fan characters/interpretations (I’m looking at you, Fraught. i love you, you fucked up spider <3).

How do you get soul? you harvest it. and you get on the king’s bad side in the process of course. and the watcher’s too, im sure. lurien’s like, ‘hey wtf those bugs are citizens under my watch. stop it’ and ‘well fuck you, im gonna point my telescope right into your office window, you soul bastard. i can read all the notes on your fucked up experiments now. whatcha gonna do now?’

How unethical were the experiments before the radiance’s insidious presence became a factor? Even if the Sanctum started as a safe place of learning, I think it wouldn’t have taken long for at least some of the bugs to start doing questionable things. Not everyone needs a moth to nudge them to cross the ethics line. But when the soul master changed course, set the scholars to study immortality, what did they focus on? improving the body so it won’t slow and cease its function as time passes? prolonging the stability of the mind so age doesn’t corrupt memories or cognition? focusing on a bug’s own soul to do something that way? any combination of this could fuck up the stability of the mind and/or body of the subjects. That’s where we get the mistakes/follies, right? too much soul for some that cause melting pretty quickly. for others that don’t have a negative reaction right away, maybe a dependency on soul is built up and must be maintained to stave off negative effects of withdrawal, then of course there’s a shortage. you can’t harvest bodies forever. maybe the souls of the infected bugs aren’t viable, maybe the infection taints them, spreads the infection to whatever bug absorbs it. there are options here.

There’s also the soul warriors. They have dream dialogue where they say something about not remembering how they have these moves or how to fight or something like that, right? so what if those bugs had souls of trained fighters like city sentries implanted in them? they suddenly have new instincts for situations that they themselves didn’t experience or train for. i kinda get neuromod vibes from this concept (from the game Prey).

Also, the parallels between the soul master and the pale king are neat. they both have corpse pits. they both think they’re hot shit (and to be fair, they are both powerful even if they’re in different leagues). the radiance directly fucks with both of them. neither of them admit defeat in their final dream nail dialogue. (iirc, arty-cakes has made a similar observation about the parallels, but i noticed this long before they made their post. still, it’s a good observation)

uhhh okay i’ll stop there for the Sanctum

DEEPNEST

...skitter skitter skitter skitter...

i feel so sorry for anyone who has arachnophobia and couldn’t enjoy the game because of this area. that sucks. this is one of my fave areas specifically because of the skitters and clicks and snaps and wibbly music/sound effects that occasionally made my skin crawl.

im a fan of spiders and centipedes, and deepnest delivered!

i have a lot of headcanon stuff for deepnest society and beasts that has little to do with the game or established lore, so i’ll leave that for another time. But for more game-related stuff, let’s see...

i think nosks and corpse creepers and grub mimics, if not different life stages of the same species, are at least related. like how wild cats and cheetahs and panthers are related but not the same. nosks have the most developed shape shifting capabilities, and they have a sort of pocket dimension that they can fold their body into so they can fit into smaller disguises (how else do you explain how large the infected nosk actually is compared to the much smaller knight that it ran around as to lure the player in? magical dimension powers is what i’ve decided)

the weaver’s den showed much more development of architecture. more metal and arches and stuff. i can’t recall to what extent the basic shapes and materials reflect parts of hallownest, but i think that place was a more recent development compared to the rest of the Beasts’ infrastructure.

PK reeeaaallllyyyyy wanted to get a tram all the way across deepnest, didn’t he? we get one tram to the eastern edge which conveniently takes riders to the ancient basin below where most of hallownest’s citizens are. but then the failed tramway that heads for the distant village. could it have been one of the lesser conditions of herrah’s and pk’s agreement? but herrah would be asleep so she wouldn’t need the tram to visit the palace or have hornet visit her. but why else would a tram be intended to cross to there? idk that one doesn’t make much sense to me. maybe i’m forgetting a detail, but whatever.

deepnest is a horrible maze that i will continue to get lost in.

[bonus - okay i’ll share this: one of the made-up swears i use for my beast character is “writhing mass” in reference to the skittering, scuttling pit of writhing things found as an area hazard in lieu of acid. like “bloody hell” or something haha. also it’s just fun to say.]

MANTIS VILLAGE

Alas, i don’t spend a whole lot of time in this area. I think the mantids are cool and honorable, and i apologize for my weaverlings attacking friendly mantids, but sometimes a little deepnest should be allowed to cause mayhem in the mantis village, okay?

mantis lords/sisters of battle are great boss fights. the choreography and smoothness and reflexes and aaaahhhh yeah

i seriously wonder what’s up with all the giant spikes though. like. not even deepnest has giga-spikes like that. ......actually. i wonder if those spikes are there in case the beasts overrun the village. they’d certainly be painful obstacles to beasts trying to climb out of the village and into the fungal wastes.

I think it would’ve been cool if there had been some bit of dialogue or a lore tablet that hinted at the mantis traitors. i know there’s the broken throne, but i didn’t notice that; it was pointed out to me after i’d already played once or twice through the game. don’t get me wrong- it’s a cool little thing to look back on and be like ‘i see what you did there’. environmental storytelling or whatever. but i’d like a little more anyway.

i wonder how the fungal folk feel about the mantids. i imagine they occupy their own sections of the fungal wastes and just mutually don’t bother each other. i wonder how diplomacy would work between a mantis of individual mind and a mushroom of shared consciousness? they make a nice contrast in a sharp and cutting/soft and bludgeoning way as well as a swift and silent/energetic and noisy way with how they attack and stuff.

okay that’s it. thanks for asking! if you read all of that, have a cookie

#alskdflasf maybe this is why i shouldn't make posts with takes #i just ramble instead of having cohesive ideas #still! this was fun to ramble about!#thanks for sending the ask!#rambling #flame answers #even though i feel like i asked a lot of my own questions too haha #alistairillustrates #the pale king #the radiance #soul sanctum #soul master

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ratcandy · 2 years

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My Issues With The Vessel Zote Theory

because I keep off-handedly mentioning that I don’t believe in it and am willing to argue but haven’t actually given my points and We Just Can’t Let That Stand.

And I’m going to start off with some quick disclaimers of I SWEAR I PROMMY I’M NOT DOING THIS TO ARGUE IN FAVOR OF HIM BEING A NOSK, I genuinely have issues with this theory and I wanna line em out. I’m not arguing for him being a nosk here I prommy I swear. I can put my biases aside I can

And disclaimer 2: If you want to go on with the headcanon that he’s a vessel after all this, or if you don’t read it at all and just wanna keep that headcanon, that’s totally valid!!! I’m not trying to bash on anyone that believes in this, nor is my intent to be hostile at all. With how vague Hollow Knight’s lore is and how just about anything is arguable to an extent... honestly, he very well could be, and I could just be talking about nonsense. I just have my own reservations about it, n I wanna share em. Because I like to argue I love debate what can I say BUT JUST TO EMPHASIZE. I do not intend to come off as aggressive in any way . I’m not targeting anyone individually, I’m just lining out the common arguments I’ve seen and my own arguments against them.

OK. Epic. Got it

Les go. Long post ahead

Obvious points that I could mention but are quite easily forgivable, especially if going specifically with an “early/failed” vessel theory, so I won’t really argue them: - The whole voice/mind/will situation (could’ve been figured out afterwards/later on) - The Mouth (Lumped in with the ‘voice’ part of the former argument; I will not forgive arguments of it being a mutation, though, because then there should’ve been at least ONE more vessel in the baby pit with a noticeable mouth) (Though I’m also not sure how he would develop a mouth like that... considering who the parents would be if he was a vessel? Neither the Pale King nor White Lady have a visible mouth like his, so? Where come from) - Color Pink (It’s not as noticeable in game, and in official art this isn’t portrayed at all. But Zote’s shell, if color-picked from his sprites, is a pinkish color as opposed to a vessel’s white. Which would make absolutely no sense if he was a child of two Pale Beings - how in the got damn would you get pink baby from two blindingly white beings of literal whiteness. If mutation argument see above)

- Those two precepts about Fathers/Mothers or whatever (I mean, honestly, without Zote looking like a vessel, I don’t think anyone would even make the connection. I personally see this as a red herring, but also I totally get why it could be seen as referencing the Pale King/White Lady, so eh.)

- Pronouns (He can be Gendered Child 2 if he wants even if he was born a vessel, I don’t see why not)

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Points that I am Now Going To Argue At Great Lengths:

If vessel, Zote void. This is established to be how vessel work. How vessels were made to work. Vessels void. We agree on that. I hope. Zote not void.

If not void, he could still be a child of the Pale King & White Lady (though the... earlier ‘mutations’ are kinda ??? on how that happened) but not a vessel. Vessels were made for the purpose of containing the Radiance. That is their sole purpose. Hence why they were made with void, as PK figured that would work to contain the Radiance, so long as thoughts/will weren’t involved. A simple child of both of them could... I guess still be seen as an “early vessel attempt,” but... how? Why? Why would they think that would work to contain the Infection? If we’re assuming that PK found out fairly quickly how the Infection works, and realized he needed something to contain it that couldn’t think nor will for anything, why would his first go-to be to just have a child? Without void involvement at all? Did he assume a child between him and WL would just be A-OK to contain the infection due to Higher Being Prowess? And if so, how’d he learn he was wrong without Zote dying/being infected? unless you mean to tell me Zote is immune because his philosophy of “simply don’t dream lol” actually deadass worked

Arguments against Zote being void because I know I’m going to have to prove that now: The easiest and most blatant way to tell a void creature apart from other bugs in the game is the particle effects. Or to tell an infected creature apart from an uninfected one. Infected bugs have orange particles, uninfected have white, and void creatures have black.

Another easy way to tell void creatures apart from non-void creatures is the sound effect that plays when void is struck. Listen closely when Ghost hits the Collector or even their own Shade - there’s a distinct “woosh” sound that doesn’t match the ‘smack’ other hits have.

Zote has neither the particles nor the sound effect. If fighting him in the Colosseum, he gives off white particles. The wooshy void effect isn’t heard, either. Seems pretty cut n dry, right?

Now what I see people mention. And what drives me insane. Is the Grey Prince Zote battle. The only and I’m talking the only thing that points towards Zote being vote at all is the particle effect when he enters the arena and when he dies. Throughout the battle, he’s still giving off the white particle effect when struck. The wooshy void sound is still not heard. Not even acknowledging that This Is A Fake Zote. That is not Zote the Mighty, a knight of great renown. That is a fictional version of him made up by Bretta. Nothing that happens with him in that dream should even be considered as canon real totally valid outside of “Wow, Bretta sure thinks about Zote in Ways.” I will stick by this until I die. Why does he have black particles when he shows up/dies? Gonna be real with u chief, I have no idea. Because it makes no sense. The only things I can think of would either be 1) In a meta-gamey way, Team Cherry thought it looked more dramatic for the funny boss battle and didn’t think it through or 2) The FUNNIER option: Bretta is a fanfic writer and she’s writing about an edgy dark prince or whatever. She wouldn’t know what void is, so that’s off the table, but I’m just saying she could so totally be like HE blEEDS black BLOOD (it’s darkness) (there’s a darkness inside him) . hemolymph dark as night. very beautiful, very powerful

Foreseeable counterargument someone could bring up is that the kingsmoulds react similarly - White particles until killed, where there’s black mixed with white. And we know the kingsmoulds are made of void. My argument against that point is that what we’re hitting is the kingsmould’s armor, and when they die, then we see the black mixed with the white. Because armor begone. Like 90% of Zote is hittable in the GPZ battle (as in he has no armor), so that excuse wouldn’t work there. And this is also in the Pale King’s ... mind, or something. Honestly, the fact that we see void in there at all is more intriguing than anything,

Alright, listen. One line from a real old kickstarter post by Team Cherry is a dead giveaway that Zote was probably going to be a vessel - or related to Ghost - in some way, at least in an initial draft: “Claiming to be a rival of the Hollow Knight and his superior in every way, Zote has supposedly come to Dirtmouth to defeat the evil creatures lurking in the depths and find the source of the poison.”

My issue with taking this at face value and just running with it has to do with. The fact that this kickstarter post was made in 2014. This is before they even figured out who the Hollow Knight was. The “Hollow Knight” they are referring to here is not the Hollow Knight today. They’re talking about Ghost. This is more obvious in the Nailsmith’s character reveal, wherein it states: “But [the Nailsmith’s] neglect has impact. His discarded nails have spread wide through Hallownest, clutched tight in the hands of creatures possessed. Only in the Hollow Knight's broken nail does he at last see true potential. Distant and difficult to achieve, but it is in there, waiting - a blade to be honed beyond all others, to be forged into a form so brilliant it transcends its metal and becomes myth.”

...And it’s followed by a picture of Ghost next to the Nailsmith.

They also misgender Ghost, and we know TC is pretty adamant now about the vessels having they/it pronouns.

What I’m saying is I don’t take any of the old kickstarter posts to be relevant anymore lmao

If Zote vessel, why is local guy not doing anything to convince me of this

By that I mean... look at how he wanders around in the game. Saying he was called here by the Hollow Knight, like Ghost was, why isn’t he doing anything to further the goal of usurping them? You’d think he’d want to - local bastard touts himself as a hero everywhere he goes. This would be an actual real chance.

But... Closest he gets to a dreamer is that one spot in the City of Tears, and that time he gets trapped in a web in Deepnest. He’s never in Fog Canyon, never even at the Black Egg temple, and instead he’s, uh... at the Colosseum, at one point.

Easy argument here is that he’s just incompetent. Okay, fair enough.

What about him kinda mentioning that he’s from a faraway land or whatever?

Oh, well an excuse there is that he’s a Bitchass Liar. Sure, okay.

How about his thoughts/dialogue? Does he mention or even think about being here for any specific duty or purpose to fulfill? Even vaguely hint at going after the dreamers, or defeating the Hollow Knight, or anything like that at all? Well, sure! There’s that grand old promise he made!... To, uh! Himself...? “A promise of glory! Glory for I, Zote the Mighty! I never doubted myself, never faltered, and now I have achieved everything I desired.”

Well that doesn’t quite give us anything. Seems more like we were led to believe that, with the hints of his promise earlier, perhaps he was deeply rooted into the lore-- only for it to turn out TC was pointing and laughing at us like Haha . You really fell for it huh. Idiot. Stupid. Silly. /j

What I’m getting at is that nothing about what he says/thinks or actively does in game actually... points to him being a vessel. Unless you want to argue that one line of dialogue of “Being overly devoted to one's duties is no virtue” - in which you argue that Maybe He Doesn’t Want To Do That Hollow Knight Shit. Which... I mean. If you want to stretch with everything else considered, sure. Nothing else in his dialogue/thoughts hints at that being the duty he’s referring to, though. His thoughts in that moment don’t even follow up on that idea, as he’s just thinking about the rain.

I’m sure this could all be argued one way or another, though. TC do love being vague as got damn possible about their lore so who really knows

If Zote vessel what the hell is Hornet doing

Shorter point, but Honestly this confuses me a lot if going with the Zote vessel theory. W. Why is she not. Killing him. Why hasn’t she killed him. She kills vessels, she has no issue killing vessels, that’s a whole thing. She also “feels no sadness at a weakling’s demise” or what have you. The only reason she lets Ghost survive is because they proved themselves as strong, and they could be capable of actually stopping the infection.

Local zote is notoriously not strong. If local Zote was a vessel, w. Why is he not killed by Hornet. We know she’s capable.

She doesn’t mention him, either. Nothing like “there’s two of you wandering about” or “there was another, but he’s a slippery bitch and somehow got away from me” the latter of which I CANNOT imagine,

Only possible explanation here was that she reasoned Oh No He Couldn’t Be for reasons listed above, and she just dismisses the idea entirely. I guess

Narratively... why?

Zote is a character that’s supposed to be a foil to Ghost. Zote exists to be a contrast - he’s supposed to be a “flawed” version of Ghost. A cheap offbrand version, if you will.

On first glance, they look physically the same, but Zote’s differences are meant to highlight aspects of Ghost. Zote has asymmetrical horns, he’s hunched over, his shell is that off-white pink color, and he’s got a mouth. Ghost is symmetrical, upright, and pure white.

Zote’s loud and chatty, whereas Ghost doesn’t talk at all. He’s self-centered and seemingly uncaring of others, whereas Ghost... if they save him, are shown to be the opposite. (As a side note, this is why it makes me a little... A little mad when people say Zote serves no purpose. His whole purpose in the game is to characterize Ghost, that’s what a foil is. If he’s saved, that characterizes Ghost as someone with sympathy, or perhaps not entirely hollow. Brushing by him and not saving him then characterizes Ghost as just as selfish and uncaring as he is, because they don’t know anything about him in that timeline. In a timeline where Zote isn’t saved, Ghost just left a bug to die Because... why? They don’t know Zote is an asshole there. They just let an innocent bug die. And walked onward without pause. Without saving Zote, he as a foil doesn’t exist. No character then really serves to characterize Ghost. They don’t really do anything else out of their way to give them character outside of the flower quest, I guess. Even sparing the Nailsmith doesn’t really count here, as if they brush past and not kill him, that doesn’t necessarily mean they spared him. They just didn’t follow his order. It’s not integral to what they’re supposed to be doing, so why should they? Anyway side tangent done.)

A lot of Zote’s “story” is also built up in a way that almost leads you into thinking there’s something deeper at work, but then turns around and slaps you for thinking that with his ending. His “promise,” which builds up intrigue, turns out then to be “a promise to himself for glory.” It’s nothing actually interesting. It’s intentionally disappointing.

To me, and this one is the only truly opinionated point rather than relying more on what’s objective, it doesn’t make... a lot of sense for him to be a vessel with the narrative that TC has given us. You could have a foil that’s also a vessel, and you can make a vessel that’s supposed to be disliked, but for Zote specifically it just... I feel like it’d be the wrong idea? If you made Zote a vessel, I think he’d fit more into the role of a parallel/mirror than a foil. Coming from the same place but branching off, then. Having more similarities than the other realizes, having somewhat similar paths (coming from the void, leaving Hallownest, then coming back at the Hollow Knight’s call)... But still being different people by the end of the day.

I just don’t really see it that way.

N furthermore, everything about this bastard is fake. Whether that be blatant lying or just his delusions of grandeur. Even his actual hard boss battle, GPZ, is fake. It’s not real. So why would he be a real vessel, despite everything else?

Why should we even believe his appearance is real? Why shouldn’t we believe he’s a nos-- [I’m shot and killed]

AAAAAAAND THAT’s all. Yea. I said the Zote things. I don’t think he’s is a vessel. N that’s it. U believe whatever u want though I think it’s a fun idea to play with, don’t get me wrong!! That’s a given seeing as I started Tinnitus!! I j. Well yknow

Ok bye. I didn’t reread over this if it’s full of clunky wording or typos ‘m sorry I’m tired

#clamtalk #zote #zote the mighty #hollow knight #VERY long ramble #tl;dr: I'm tired. I don't think zote's a vessel because it doesn't add up enough for me. Lore and narrative wise #but at the same time . y'all believe whatever u want #the hk lore vague as fuck and I'm just spouting what makes sense in my head #if i need to clarify anything more u let me know I'm always ready to do so #or if u just want to tell me I'm wrong that's ok too #hollowed bugs

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ratcandy · 3 years

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CoGR Abridged/Summarized

Hello hello! My name is Clam, otherwise known as Squeakyclam on Ao3, and this is a heavily summarized/shortened version of my HK fic Camouflage of Great Renown. For anyone somehow finding this that doesn't know what it's about, CoGR focuses on Zote and his story through the game and what preceded it. He recounts his entire life up until the end of what's known in canon, and this includes a whole lot of angst, growth, realizations, and Trauma Revelations.

Oh, and he's a nosk. Zote is a nosk. Yep.

I've had a few requests for a summary, as the work is super long and reading through 130k+ words of Zote dialogue may not be for everyone, hehehe so I've compiled all the important plot points and wrote them out here in order of his story, rather than the plotline CoGR goes through specifically (in which big events in his history are revealed later on).

If I had to recommend reading the fic for anything, it'd be the... impact, I suppose? 'Cause reading the summarized events here will NOT be anything like reading it in CoGR. Seeing as the fic is all in Zote's pov and he actually has to force himself to admit all of this aloud. But I digress!!

Here's a summary of Zote's life according to CoGR.

THIS IS A VERY, VERY LONG POST DESPITE BEING A SUMMARY. I'm sorry, CoGR just has a lot happening! T/W for mentions of death.

A lot more heavy stuff happens in CoGR, but in this summary I do my best to step around those subjects. If you think more T/Ws should be added, let me know, and I'll put them here

Nosks were a species that inhabited Deepnest, specifically living in a den towards the nest's depths. It split off into lots of tunnels and caverns that each nosk lived in. "Society" there was very hostile and unwelcoming, as nosks valued brute strength over just about anything else. Caring for another nosk - be it kin or otherwise - was considered weak. "Burdens" to the den, such as nosks that were badly wounded, would/could not hunt, or were simply getting too old would be killed off. Death in and of itself was very common and hardly anyone would bat an eye at it.

Think the Mantis Tribe but largely feral and without a shred of decency of morals.

Runt donning mask of citizen was born into the nosk den alongside his brother, who would become hunter donning hide of tiktik.

(Before anyone asks, these are just the naming conventions that nosks have. No one but the nosk superiors - the leaders of the den - are granted actual names.)

A third egg was among them, but the brother broke it open and ate the younger sibling not long after hatching.

The two were born under a superior (their mother) and her chosen mate (their father). They were expected to grow up strong and eventually overtake their mother and become superiors. Or, one of them would, maybe.

The runt (Zote) was immediately scorned by the mother, as he was extremely frail and useless, and she just about killed him off right after he hatched - but his father stepped in, and the runt was left alive.

Zote grew up to be a weak nosk who could barely defend himself in a den full of beasts that would gladly kill him if doing so wouldn't be a direct offense to a superior. His brother was cruel to him, his father berated him constantly, and his mother was hardly in the picture at all. Only ever watching him distastefully from afar.

His father did, however, train him, if only sparingly. The least he could do to keep Zote alive. (Doing so would be a death wish were any other nosks to find out about it...)

However, an elder in the den - hunter donning mask of weaver - gained Zote's attention as she told him fantastical stories from outside the den. This elder had spent a good portion of her life among the Weavers, initially being sent to learn about them (to make them easier to hunt) but growing interested in their culture and choosing to stay. Until she did something to get her chased out.

At any rate, she told the stories from the Weavers to Zote, alongside news of what was happening outside of Deepnest. This caused the runt to become obsessed with the idea of being a knight, as the stories just sounded!! So amazing and heroic and awesome and!!! :D Yea!! He wanted to be just like that!

To the point where he even carved a sword out of the shellwood... with the den elder's help. He named it Life-Ender eventually.

At some point, however, his father found out about all this. His father figured that the only way to eliminate this problem - as wishing to be something heroic that saved lives or whatever was SO unnosk-like (and would get him killed) - was to kill the den elder.

Before she died, the elder told Zote to run away from the den, and not to return no matter what. The idiot did not run, and because of this, he witnessed the Den Elder's death at the hands of his father and some other nosks.

Man! this does, however, cause Zote to be more... "open" about his ideas. By this I mean he begins carrying Life-Ender around instead of hiding it in his nest. what do you mean it's a comfort item what! no he's just rebelliously showing off how much he wants to be a knight. totally. 100% /s

well, anyway, not long after this, the idiot's father dies at the claws of his mother. Zote unfortunately witnesses this as well. When he tries to run, his mother catches him, nearly killing him as well. Luckily(?), this attempt is thwarted by Zote's brother, who was very distraught over their father's death. The brother swears to kill the mother before storming off. Zote runs into hiding (still in the nosk den), and begins devising his plan so to get the hell out of there.

Of the few times that Zote leaves his nest after his father's death, 90% of them ended with him getting pummeled by his brother. The latter was livid, blaming the father's death on Zote and frequently bursting into fits of emotional rage. Rage is great for nosks, other emotions not so much.

On one occasion in particular, the brother goes too far, nearly killing Zote. In the scuffle, Life-Ender is shattered, and that sends Zote into a blind anger (mixed with survival instinct as he's About to Die). Zote then kills his brother.

A crowd had gathered around them during the fight. In that crowd was Zote's mother, who looked to him approvingly after he'd killed off his brother. This terrified Zote, so he gathered the pieces of Life-Ender and fled the den forever.

Stopping at the hot spring in Deepnest, he made a disguise for himself based on the vessels that nosks would often capture. He made a new name for himself, took on an entirely new identity, and decided to abandon the idea that he was ever a nosk. He would just go to the City, be knighted by the King (who he'd heard of from the stories the Den Elder would tell him), and live out his life as a knight. Just like he always wanted. Not as a nosk. because he's not that.

The events that follow now are just very short summaries of things that happen throughout cogr.

- He breaks a statue in the Queen's station on accident after a bug finds him there. as a nosk. oops

- He obliterates the entire uoma population /j and burns himself in the process

- He repairs Life-Ender originally using mushrooms in the Fungal Wastes. Fungal adhesion is real I checked I swear

- He makes it to the City of Tears! and while there, he

Gets caught by Hegemol who mistakes him as a vessel

Drowns in the City's gutters

Purchases a cloth to wrap around Life-Ender

Hears the Pale King talk one (1) time and immediately decides he hates him

- While leaving the City, he finds a grub. That grub never really gets named, but as he frequented calling the little thing "Fiend," and the grub eventually began responding to that title, he just considers it a name for them now.

- Zote travels with the grub throughout the Crossroads until he drops them off with the Grubfather, being rewarded for reuniting them but overall feelings pretty :( about it.

- He then goes to the. So you know the houses that are underneath the Gruzz Mother's lil arena? Yea that place. he goes there and "guards" it, becoming that place's self-proclaimed knight.

- then he starts being paranoid about the grub and returns to the grubfather only to see all the grubs have been stolen. he presumes Fiend is dead from this point on (and dodges around ever using the word).

- Then he goes back to the lil town place only to see everyone's infected :(

- We then spend TEN CHAPTERS!! in Greenpath. In which he

eats a plant and dies

Stands in No Eyes's tomb.

Visits the Lake of Unn (and nothing bad happens)

Sees a nosk at the entrance to Fog Canyon and proceeds to have a panic attack

Kills everything

Gets caught by the Vengefly king

Gets saved!

has a breakdown

Yells at Ghost and then Leaves

- Canon starts!

- He stops in Dirtmouth, listens to Elderbug talk, gets told the Myth of the Great old Nosks who are now all Extinct. The news that nosks are now extinct freaks Zote out a little, but he absolutely refuses to return to Deepnest. He doesn't need to make sure. It's fine.

- In an effort to convince himself not to go to Deepnest, he goes to the City again, thinking it can't possibly be all that ba-- oh no everyone's dead!

- he inadvertently steals a map marker from Ghost and decides to use that as a pin for his cloak

- Zote returns to Deepnest. He's very upset with himself for this, but he just has to know if all the nosks are actually extinct now.

The answer is yes

but before that he gets caught by dirtcarvers and put in a web and has to be saved. this makes him angry

Upon seeing all the dead nosks once he gets to the den, and noticing that the last nosk was mimicking Ghost (evidenced by the mask left behind) before it died, he decides that he's gotta Kill Everything again

- more specifically we're going to the Colosseum now.

- Zote's fear of water evaporates as he goes through the secret passage in the King's Station to get to Kingdom's Edge. He only found it because he saw Ghost go that way

- While at the Kingdom's Edge, he gets caught by the Fools, who he stupidly challenges and then immediately gets caught by.

- sits in dumb baby jail for a while. mean to tiso

- Then the colosseum battle happens! He does not win he then gets dropped down into kingdom's edge with little regard toward whether he's dead or alive

- He grabs a Fool's helmet before leaving, going back to Dirtmouth, and intending to bury that thing

- this goes wrong as he bumps into Bretta. He then sits and talks with her for God Only Knows how Long, spacing out while doing so, and not even noticing when she eventually gets up and leaves him.

- He buries the helmet, shuts himself away in his house, and gets stuck repeating his precepts to himself. At the end of CoGR it is revealed that he hasn't been talking to anyone, and is instead talking to himself endlessly as no one is left to listen to him

and that's it! that's cogr. yeah

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