#hollow knight meta

[ruthlesslistener]

Wanderer's Journal (pt. 5)

Here's just misc stuff that I liked. I don't have much to add on for most of these, since they're just character profiles, but I think they add some tidbits to the world that's fun to read about anyways

I don't really have much to say on these, other than the fact that Hornet seems to only attack those who are a threat to breaking the seals, aka Quirrel and Ghost. Explains why so many travelers were able to get into Hallownest without being attacked- she just didn't care enough to dispatch them, most likely because they'd either be killed by husks or taken by the infection. Hallownest does its own work defending itself

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

#hollow knight #hollow knight lore #hollow knight meta #i was also gonna post the soul sanctum stuff in a pt 6 but im lazy lol

[bobbinbugs]

Quirrel was not suicidal

As a 3-year hollow knight fan, I see "Stag Beetles and Broken Legs" get recommended a lot. A lot a lot. Considered by many to be the definitive Hollow Knight fanfiction, it generates fanart and gushing recommendations every time it's mentioned.

But there's one glaring issue of interpretation I've gathered: It frames Quirrel at the Blue Lake as suicidal.

And I don't think that's correct at all.

Once you get down to it, everything in Hallownest is about death and avoiding it. The Pale King's eternal kingdom, the Soulmaster's shaping of soul, the Radiance's aimless reanimated vengeance... in clinging to life, they strip themselves of dignity, and cause unfathomable suffering for naught. Characters who think they will never die, like Tiso, meet their unceremonious end, unburied and unmourned. "All things must accept an end," in the words of Vespa's ghost.

A minor character reiterating one of the central themes of the game: hold that thought.

Few characters have immortality aside from gods. Even with gods, immortality is highly conditional: but that's a different essay. In otherwise "mortal" characters who lasted too long, they seem ghostlike themselves: the pale mourner evokes the classic white lady archetype, and dissipates into thin air once her business is finished. The seer appears to have a conditional immortality as well: once the maximum essence is collected, she, too, dissipates, having finally assured a new Wielder has come.

Quirrel seems to operate on this conditional immortality as well. Considering he left long enough ago for the plan to be put into action, the fail of it, and for the fallen kingdom of Hallownest to become "ancient". Like the Mourner and Seer, he probably should have reached the end of his natural lifespan long, long ago: and, as we see Monomon's mask protect him from killing blows in the prequel comic, it's fairly logical to conclude it's also extending his lifespan. No point in creating a back-up plan if the back-up isn't protected, right?

And what happens if you remove the lifesource?

Well... let's put it this way. "I begin to feel my age" takes on more weight than a quip about how much time has passed, or the burden of memory. Without Monomon's protection, his statement metamorphoses into an admission: Quirrel is starting to feel, body and mind, that his artificially-extended lifespan is catching up with him.

So that's the first half: accepting death. The second half is fulfilling your purpose for living: Let's talk about the Nailsmith.

The Nailsmith is a character who lives to forge nails. That's his art and purpose: to forge a Pure Nail. Once his purpose is completed, he loses his will to live: after all, it's completed. The way the ghosts pass on, and how Ghost too disappears when their purpose (defeat the radiance) is completed, the Nailsmith asks the player to kill him. Even his thoughts revolve around his worthlessness. His dream nail dialogue reads "My life's work achieved… What more is left…?" To the Nailsmith - and the oligarchs of the game - completing your purpose means you have outlived your usefulness. But there is a key difference between the Nailsmith's final* thoughts and Quirrel's final thoughts. For comparison:

"All tragedy erased. I see only wonders..."

This is not the dialogue of a suicidal person. Quirrel is not self loathing. He doesn't feel worthless. He's grateful for the long life he's lived, and the blessing that he gets to experience it twice over. And this is his dream nail dialogue: it's objective truth he's not putting on a brave face but harboring darker thoughts. Genuinely, I would not call these the thoughts of someone who wants to die: this is the thought process of someone who wants to live. You may extrapolate or choose to ignore, but I don't think it's founded to interpret Quirrel as suicidal.

And that establishes difference between the Nailsmith and Quirrel: Quirrel doesn't seem burdened by his lack of purpose. In fact, I don't even think he considered Monomon his purpose to begin with. We know from the Nailsmith that fulfilling your purpose means you've outlived your usefulness; you die, or you find a new purpose. But the Nailsmith's purpose was smithing nails, and he devoted himself to it. Quirrel is called back to Hallownest, but spends 90% of his time in it just... fucking about, to put it crassly. He does want to solve the mystery of his being called, but he takes his time. He doesn't consider his purpose is to serve Monomon; he's not overtaken by a passion or skill; Quirrel is a traveler. He's just after the wonders.

At the end, he does exactly that. He lived a long, full life for himself and no other, seeking out wonders and taking his time. He finished what he was called to do, but it's telling even his final goal - seeing the Blue Lake - is a goal for himself, and not something he was told to do. He spent most of that long life not knowing he had a purpose someone else set, and doing what he wanted.

(quirrel voice i was put on this earth to accomplish 1 thing but i forgot what it was so thankfully i can do whatever i want)

Despite his final thoughts being of someone who loves living, Quirrel is... almost absolutely dead. The file is called quirrel_death_nail.png. One of his first lines in the game is advising you to loot weapons from corpses, because the dead "shouldn't be burdened with such things," and the last sign of him is his abandoned nail. Furthermore, he abandons his nail at the time Hallownest is most dangerous, with the Radiance so close to being free. Self defense is more important than ever, and a character as wise as Mr. Either-you're-alert-or-you're-dead wouldn't abandon his nail at such a crucial moment! Overall, Hollow Knight is a game that keeps in the classic tragic opera tradition of killing off as much of its cast as possible before the final curtain, and Quirrel is no exception. You can argue that quirrel_death_nail.png is the death of "Quirrel the wanderer," but I'm not going to lie, the signs aren't in looking good.

But I don't think he drowned. Just for fun, let's bring a common fan interpretation into the fray: Quirrel is commonly interpreted as a pillbug. (So do I - it's just too perfect.) Neatly, pillbugs are actually crustaceans, and have gills! Given the general aquatic theme of fog canyon and his final stop at blue lake, the effect is less "giving up" and more "return to homeland/true nature," which is what Quirrel's arc is all about. I wouldn't worry about him drowning.

But if he's dead, and his last stop was at Blue Lake, but he didn't drown, what did happen to him?

Remember the Seer and Pale Mourner, and their conditional immortality? Keeping in line with the other ghosts-that-haven't-died in the resting grounds, I like to think Quirrel, upon completing his task, likewise fades into light. The location, lack of clarity between immortal, alive, or dead, and completion of unfinished business all line up for Quirrel to go the same way. This idea is a bit more of a stretch than all the others, but I believe it suits him. It's fair. It's graceful. It's direct contrast to an unburied corpse or an unmarked grave, like all the Fools at Kingdom's Edge.

So, In conclusion: Quirrel didn't drown himself. He doesn't think he's worthless or that he doesn't want to live. He saw his time is up - and perhaps had been up for a while - and does not scrabble or cling, but bows out with grace. In turn, the wandering scholar earns the rarest jewel in all of Hallownest: a dignified passing.

Rest in peace, Quirrel. You've earned it.

#anyway this is why i refuse to read sbabl #aside from the complexes #quirrel #meta #bobbinbugs originals #hollow knight meta #hollow knight #long ass post. made this while depressed #bon appetit #UPDATE FIXED A GLARING ERROR OR SIX #TUMBLR SAVED IT WEIRD AND LEFT BEHIND A COPYPASTE I DELETED. OOPS OOPS OOPS #in tumblr's defense firefox was crashing a lot for no reason that day

[cawareyoudoin]

So a while ago I have seen a post by @q-hayashida-fanboy , proposing a theory that I never before considered, but that stuck with me and has made me write a dozen pages of notes, and descend into madness.

In Hollow Knight, we play as the Knight. Like many video game protagonists, they are mute, but unlike many video game protagonists, they have a set, in-universe reason for it. "No mind to think, no will to break, no voice to cry suffering", etc etc, we all know the story. Of course there are various fan interpretations (which I love), but for now I want to focus on the canon.

In canon, they stay silent. At least outwardly, that is. They read, they listen, but sometimes, rarely, they describe their surroundings to us (or to themselves). It could of course be argued that this is just the omniscient Narrator speaking, and I will tackle that later, but for now... Just go with me. I've had an Undertale obsession. I am familiar with squeezing out character details from seemingly irrelevant pieces of narration.

So! These tiny pieces of narration usually happen when the player is given a prompt to do something: open a gate, use the tram pass, examine something closely. They are not phrased as "do I do something?", but then again- if that was the case, I wouldn't have to try so hard to prove my argument. My point is, they are also not phrased as "do you do something?". They are simply "do something?", a neutral form that can be either first, second, or even third person.

The one that stuck out to me the most was this: "A blue gem rests atop a stone dais". I am not a native English speaker, and I had to google "dais" to even know what it was. The other similar flavour text is quite simple, and so this bit of fancy language was surprising. However, these few lines of dialogue are not enough to support an argument, and are so few and far between that an average player can simply ignore them.

Now, on to the actual theory itself: the Hunter's Journal. Perhaps the single most text-heavy thing in the entire game, rivaled only by Zote's Precepts. You get info about enemies when you kill them, and additional notes when you kill a set amount.

Well, what struck me (and others) as odd, is the strange discrepancies in knowledge, attitude, and tone between the initial entry, and the one you have to decipher. It would almost seem like the first entries weren't written by the Hunter at all...

So, like the maniac I am, I have reviewed the Hunter's Journal, entry by entry (you can read my semi-organized notes here, I'm sorry I don't have the strength to organise them more), and the first section, the one above the Hunter symbol, is definitely written by someone else. This other narrator seems to value honour and skill in battle, watch the creatures around them closely, with an almost scientific approach, and they use complex and refined language.

Of course the "omniscient outside narrator" is also possible, but this narrator also appears to have the perspective of the Knight, describing the creatures Hunter's size as "huge", and describing in detail the enemies that the Hunter only vaguely knows about (see: Collector, Uumuu, Siblings). They also get the most annoyed and emotional in the Zote-related entries, but otherwise are pretty straightforward.

Thus, I am convinced that this mysterious Narrator... is the Knight themselves.

If we were to accept this hypothesis, we could gain some information on what kind of person the Knight is.

My conclusions about that are as follows: the Knight, as expected, is quite a stoic person. They do, however, have a concept of emotion, and most likely feel some themselves. The most prominent ones, at least where Hallownest's creatures are concerned, are awe and contempt. They respect skill, honour, and combat prowess, and dislike cowardice, and... Well, everything Zote has going on. They observe creatures around them with curiosity, and have some biological and otherwise scientific knowledge. They also judge those around them, but mostly when it comes to their relationships with others- not with themselves. They don't write like a child would, suggesting that despite their tiny stature, they are indeed mentally grown up, or, alternatively, that they are a very mature and serious child.

Perhaps, we could also theorize what environment shaped them to be that way. It is possible they were influenced by their time in Hallownest before leaving, but if that's not the case, I would pose, that the place where they lived:

1. Valued a scientific approach

2. Valued knighthood (that would also explain why the Knight is the Knight, in spite of likely never being acknowledged by the Pale King or another Hallownest ruler)

3. Was also quite civilised and was perhaps another kingdom beyond Hallownest (we already know that the Pale King "last kingdom" propaganda is bullshit).

So there. If anyone has any objections, additions, or corrections, I would be glad to hear them.

#hollow knight #hollow knight theory #hollow knight meta #the hunter #the hunter's journal #the knight #little ghost #cawpost #caw caws #long post

[ospreyeamon]

a seal of slowing

When the Pale King sealed Hallownest away from the rest of the world, I think that it wasn’t just that he ordered its gates, stations, and elevators locked to physically shut away his kingdom. I think he also placed a powerful Seal of Slowing over some parts of Hallownest, disconnecting the kingdom in time as well as space.

Some characters have wildly different relations to the timeline of the world than others. Hornet, Quirrel, Eternal Emilitia, the Midwife, Ogrim, and Ze’mer were all born before the fall of Hallownest. They are old enough to remember the Pale Kingdom’s glory; Quirrel, Ogrim, and Ze’mer were all certifiable adults during it because they had important jobs.

Elderbug, on the other hand, tells the Knight that Dirtmouth’s Stag Station has been locked since before the earliest memories of his childhood. He has only heard stories of Hallownest, the kingdom that fell before his birth. Relic Seeker Lemm looks at Hallownest with the eyes of an archaeologist, gleaning information about how the Pale King was viewed by his subjects in the same way as about how the Ancient Civilisation viewed the Void. (Of course, this is complicated by the fact that different species of bug might have different average lifespans.)

The level of decay in Hallownest’s environs also varies considerably. The Knight can batter their way through the great gate in the King’s Pass but will only blunt their nail trying the same thing with the gates of the City of Tears. As magicalballerinaprincess has pointed out, you can discover the broken remains of a tramway that once connected the Crystal Peak to the King’s Pass; the tramway between the Crossroads and the Resting Grounds and the line from Deepnest to the Kingdom’s edge are not only intact but operational.

This supports the idea that time has been flowing different speeds in different parts of Hallownest. Much more time has passed in Dirtmouth, where whole generations have lived and died and the kingdom beneath the town has moved from living memory to distant history, than in the Royal Waterways where Ogrim doesn’t know of the fates that have befallen his friends.

The Pale King presumably did this to improve the odds of being able to wait out the Infection until the death of the Radiance. Maybe after sealing the Radiance away inside the Hollow Knight and the Hollow Knight inside the Black Egg Temple, one more seal in a plan that involved many seals; maybe when it became clear that his plan had failed and he was desperately scrambling for another solution and acting to protect himself by shifting the White Palace into a dream.

This gives us an explanation for why certain areas were inside the Seal while others were not. The Crossroads – where the Radiance was – needed to be outside the Seal. Deepnest, Fog Canyon, the City of Tears, and the Ancient Basin – which housed the Dreamers and the tether leading to the White Palace – needed to be inside the Seal. Another important reason for having population centres like the City of Tears inside the Seal was that those areas were net importers of food and cutting the trade routes through the Crossroads impacted their ability to feed themselves.

‘SO while studying the map I noticed something cool!’, magicalballerinaprincess, 8 July 2021, https://magicalballerinaprincess.tumblr.com/post/656202148765433856/so-while-studying-the-map-i-noticed-something

#Hallownest Walking Tour #hollow knight meta #Hallownest #Dirtmouth #the City of Tears #the seal of slowing #a wild headcanon appeared

[lonepower]

question re: godseeker’s grammar

so i’m getting to the point in kos where I’m scripting some early dialogue for godseeker (don’t get excited, she’s not showing up for a while lol), and it’s occurring to me that, like-

so godseeker’s early modern english is really bad. it’s inconsistent, it’s badly conjugated, she uses the wrong grammatical case and verb agreements, varies wildly between plural and singular when addressing the knight (which is...interesting in its own right; my ghost refers to themself[themselves...?] in the plural because they’re a gestalt, but i sincerely doubt that was the intention with godseeker)... blah blah blah.

of course the doylist answer is “nobody knows how to conjugate early modern english unless they’re an insufferable nerd” and team cherry just didn’t do their research, but the watsonian answer is “godseeker is trying to puff up her own importance by deliberately speaking archaically, but she’s doing it wrong,” which is. hilarious.

so now i’m torn between Being An Insufferable Nerd and writing her dialogue in correct eme, or gritting my teeth and deliberately writing it badly because it’s funny. the main reason I balk at doing that is because nobody knows how to conjugate eme unless they’re an insufferable nerd, so either a) people read it and it reinforces the Ye Olde Butcherde Englishe trope, or b) another insufferable nerd reads it and thinks that I, a linguistic anthropologist, do not know how to conjugate early modern english - which is UNACCEPTABLE.

so I’m putting it to the fandom: is godseeker’s poor grammar the unintentional side effect of a research failure, or is it a deliberate character choice made to illustrate her own self-importance? discuss.

#hollow knight #godseeker #hollow knight meta #king of shades

[helga-grinduil]

me writing essays in my head about how 'NO the pale king did NOT take vessels out of the abyss to train and determine whether or not they were empty'

because it would mean that vessels were expected to not be empty (meaning: be normal kids) with at least one of them being an exception... which is not what happened at all. the pale king did not fucking weed out and killed his own fucking kids on purpose just because they had thoughts and emotions until he found one single empty one, because this literally goes against so much information from the game, AND it paints him as an unfeeling and sadistic monster, which again, goes hard against things we know about his relationship with hollow and with how he felt about the whole vessel thing

the pale king and the white lady didn't think void creatures were able to feel in the first place. they thought anything made of void had no will of it's own and could only follow orders. which is why the white lady thought that ghost was empty and without blemishes just from meeting them once, and you can meet her long after you gift the fragile flower to elderbug and oro and decide not to kill the nailsmith, which are actions definitely not possible for someone who can't feel or is only capable of following orders, so ghost definitely wasn't completely empty or without any blemishes! so, if vessels were taken from the abyss to be tested in the white palace and like MILLION of them failed to be empty and were killed for that, why would she immediately jump onto the idea that ghost would be empty?

if they were taken from the abyss to be tested (and i mean, there were literal thousands of them), how can it be that one of the pale king's personal knights didn't even know that there were other vessels besides the hollow knight? but the biggest problem with this theory is that the voidheart cutscene literally makes zero sense in this case. why were the pure vessel and the pale king even there, if they were tested in the palace? make it make sense

the tablet next to the entrance to the abyss reads: 'our pure vessel has ascended. beyond lies only the refuse and regret of its creation. we shall enter that place no longer'. the pure vessel had ascended from below, demonstrating to the pale king that it was the strongest out of the other vessels and was able to follow the pale king's order perfectly. that's how and when it was chosen.

the king locked away the abyss because he thought that he was leaving behind empty unfeeling automatons made out of hollowed by void corpses of his children. he thought his children died the moment he put the eggs into the abyss. that was his 'regret and refuse' of the vessel's creation, not battle royal-ing his own damn kids because they showed some signs of being alive.

the pale king's personal tragedy was raising an unfeeling and mindless husk of his own dead child and still growing to love and care for it despite knowing that he still had to use it for the purpose it was created, only later to realise after it failed at it's mission that they WERE his child all along and that ALL of them were, but it's too late now

#no you don't understand i hate this theory with PASSION #it feels like this theory exists solely to make the pale king into some kind of an edgy cruel villain #when the reality is much more interesting and sad #he was a god who joined mortals and in his godlike hubris and ignorance made mistakes that in the end left him just a tired broken mortal #hollow knight #hollow knight meta #??? #the pale king #the white lady #the hollow knight #ghost #vessels

[endser64]

I usually call Hollow Knight’s protag ‘Little Ghost’ because I think it’s cute but I also really like the different meanings of ‘Ghost of Hallownest.’ One meaning is that Ghost is a knight of Hallownest, they are one of a few defenders of what remains of Hallownest, and Hornet, one of the few others, who’s called a protector and sentinel and watches over the entrances to this kingdom, recognizes them as a fellow knight at the end of the game. The other meaning is that Hallownest is dead and they are it’s Ghost. One of three living descendants of it’s king, still acting out Hallownest’s will, even after it’s dead, doing their best to lay it and it’s spirits to rest.

#Hollow Knight #Hollow Knight Meta #Little Ghost

[ariadnesweb]

Enemies in the Forgotten Crossroads are like: tackles you. Has no other moves.

Enemies in Greenpath are like: _ . - . _   !Ambush!   _ o ||| o _

Enemies in Deepnest are like: Pwetty Pwease come cwoser, I pwomise I won’t huwt you... Pwease ignowe the teeth and claws near this piece of stationary

Enemies in Fog Canyon are like: literally just bombs lying around

Enemies in City of Tears are like: Knights telegraphing their attacks

Rich enemies in City of Tears are like: miraculously attacks you despite looking like the most incompetent fool ever

Knight Bosses are like: dash attack

Enemies in Crystal Peak are like: destroys the environment so you can’t move anymore

Enemies in Kingdom’s Edge are like: Too powerful to care for an ant like you, kills you anyway

Enemies in Royal Waterways are like:(has multiple health bars)               ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK!

Enemies connected to the Abyss and Ancient Basin are like: *desperately lonely and desperate for company*

Enemies in Infected Crossroads are like: runs towards you, then explodes

Enemies in the Hive are like: have the home advantage

Enemies in the colosseum of fools are like: aware their life is just fodder for entertainment

Dream Warriors are like: flies around randomly, projecting projectiles

#hollow knight #hollow knight meta #meta #Soilai's labyrinth

[psycheterminal]

I love and appreciate that there's not one, but two completely bizarre Hollow Knight isekai fics

Wheels to Wherever and An Adventure in Hallownest, you do you.

Also holy fucking shit you post fast, how do you pull this witchcraft.

#hollow knight #hollow knight meta #they're nice people #the fics are meme-filled and bonkers

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hello Stranger. Whom I have never met.

 [First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #xiao xingchen #xue yang #a-qing #Xue yang realizing the situation and changing up his mannerisms on the spot probably should not be as funny to me as it is #Everyone here is in a bad situation. XY and A-Qing are playing the long game of faking critical information #XXC is just vibing. I am calling him 'baby girl' in the most 'oh god we got to get you out of this house' tone #The situation at hand is the xxc took home a bobcat to nurse it back to health #thinking it would be just like a housecat. But a house cat would also eat your face advantageously. A bobcat wont wait for you to die #meta note: I've been drawing the last few comics in the same room as my buddy while they play hollow knight. #They were going through the royal waterways while I've been drawing. Fighting Flukes. #If you care to know about the auditory experience in the BG that underlies these last few comics. #if you know then you know. If you don't... then I wish I was you. #but I like to think thats what XY hears when he's passed out in his nightmares. As he deserves.

[ruthlesslistener]

Short probably incomprehensible rant because I’m frustrated.

The vessels are sentient. All of them are. That is the point.

Ghost is not the ‘true hollow vessel’ who would have sealed the radiance if they got to the top of the abyss before Hollow. They are also not hollow.

The game itself supports this notion. There are achievements based on choices the player/ghost makes. If Ghost was truly an automaton with no free will, why would there be any alternate paths for quests??

Agh, it’s just annoying whenever I see the take of Ghost not being sentient.

^^^ also don't forget that Ghost left the Abyss and walked into the Wastelands on their own volition. And that they flail in pain and panic when they fall into acid, and automatically slows down and adjusts their posture when they walk into civilized areas, even though nobody taught them.

They weren't hollow. None of the vessels were. Hollow Knight is a tragedy, one where you play as the victim of the central main characters, and a major aspect of that tragedy was embodied by the vessel plan, where those who could not speak for themselves were treated as lesser beings than those capable of communicating and fighting back. People who ignore that fact and continue to claim that the vessels were hollow completely missed the entire point of the game.

#hollow knight #anon #reply #hollow knight lore #hollow knight meta #the idea that any of the vessels were hollow drives me insane

[bobbinbugs]

Something fun: most of the area themes are rearrangements of the title theme, and the soul sanctum follows the same chord progression and melody as CoT in a minor key

#music. it’s good #hollow knight #hollow knight meta #bobbinbugs originals #meta

[cawareyoudoin]

On the other narrator in the Hunter's Journal:

⚪-in white are the names of the creatures and the first narrator's comments

🔴-in red are the Hunter's comments that don't mesh well or contrast the first entries

🔵- in blue is the text added by me, my observations and comments

Adjectives with subjective connotations:

Grimmkin "playful", "relinquish", "devoted", "terrifying" !!! fear !!!

Husk hive "cowardly"

Mossy Vagabond "lazy, portly Mosskin. Easily swayed by others"

Ambloom "simple-minded"

Moss charger "timid"

Husk miner "precious crystal"

Obble "fat, slow, round", "discharges", "acidic"

Vengefly "pursues its prey relentlessly"

Brooding mawlek "ferocious but extremely social", "mingle"

Gruzzer "simple-minded", "haphazardly", "bumping into things"

Pilflip "odd"

Wandering husk "strange force"

Pale lurker "strange obsessions"

(various words suggest surprise/not understanding something)

Husk bully "aggressively"

Mantis youth "fiercely protective"

Mantis warrior "savage attacks"

Mantis lords "blinding speed"

Bluggsac "placid but putrid"

Little weaver "nimble", "domain", "waits in ambush"

Soul twister "vicious spells"

Fancy words, perhaps suggesting a scientific and/or higher education:

Volatile gruzzer "gruzzer swollen with infection and primed to burst"/"horrible goo and noxious has has started leaking from above. Is there a source of all this pestilence? If so, I haven't seen it" (the Narrator knows more than the Hunter- they have met the gruzzer personally)

Vengefly King "patriarch", "reinforcements"

Entombed husk "enraged by infection"

Maggot "looked down upon", "menial labour"

Squit "proboscis"

Mosskin "foes"

Fool eater "carnivorous"

Husk hornhead "uninfected creature"

Goam "seize prey"

Lifeseed "extracted and consumed", "healthful properties"/"drinking it" (different wording; note that every new skill the Knight gets is described by being "consumed")

Mosscreep "weakling", "amongst", "undergrowth"

Gulka "retracts protectively", "hard spikey balls"

Maskfly "harmless", "favours serene enviroments", "travels in flocks"

Durandoo "simple", "encased" "often found"

Aluba "passive", "prefers", "dwell"

Charged lumafly "generating electricity"/"a sharp, crackling flash" (different wording, also possible the Hunter doesn't know what electricity is, while the Narrator does)

Uoma "smallest Jelly form", "passive", "unaware", "electric charge"/"I have no idea what this is" (the Narrator knows more than the Hunter)

Uumuu "intelligent being that guards the inner chamber of the Teacher's Archives"/"be careful, strange and unnatural things lurk there(no description! The Narrator knows more than the Hunter- they have met Uumuu)

Massive moss charger "family of creatures" (knows concept of family?)

Fungoon "fully grown", "spits built up internal gasses at aggressors"/ "so round!" (the Narrator makes observations and conclusions, the Hunter just goes with the first thing that comes to mind)

Shrumal ogre "corrosive venom"

Aspid hatchling "instinctively"

Soul warrior "learned", "refined", "enhances", "prowess"

Flukemon "worm-like", "prefers damp, dark habitats"/"infest the pipes" (a curious researcher's approach vs an utalitarian one)

Dirtcarver "swarming predator"

Shadow Creeper "has never been observed to eat or drink anything" !!! (Not sure why I added these exclamations- I guess because that's something demanding long-term observation, when the narrator knows it instantly?)

Gorb "mysterious life-form", "distended"

Hopper "sharp proboscis", "drain vital fluids"/"blood it has stolen" (very different wording)

Lightseed "a single-celled organism"

Boofly "docile", "peacefully"

Fungling "passive", "internal gasses cause it to float"/"it drifts" (the Narrator knows more than the Hunter?)

Mistake "once a highly intelligent bug, deformed by the misuse of soul"

Corpse creeper "parasitic beast", "host"

Soul master "became intoxicated"

Flukemarm "insatiable breeder"

Flukemunga "aged", "grown fat", "rich refuse"

Crystal crawler "searing beams of light", "seemingly unaware"

Loodle "not aggressive in nature"

Nosk "mimics the shape of other creatures to lure prey to its lair"/In the deepest darkness, there are beasts who wear faces stolen from your memories and pluck at the strings in your heart. Know yourself, and stay strong. (very detached and objective compared to the Hunter)

Violent husk "maddened by massive infection", "no thought for its own preservation"

Furious vengefly "vengefly whose body has been distorted by continued infection."

Slobbering husk "completely consumed by infection"

Broken vessel "shattered corpse, reanimated by infected parasites"

Aspid hunter "bests its prey", "corrosive"

Soul twister "arcane knowledge"

Mantis youth "abdomen"

Mantis warrior "bladed forelimbs"

Words suggesting the narrator is small (and also might be fond of Grubs):

Gruz mother, Hive guardian "huge body"

Winged sentry "vast cavern"

Hwurmp "tiny and placid", "enormous size"

Garpede "giant burrower", "tirelessly"

Great husk sentry "attacks cause heavy damage"

Oblobble "larger cousin"

(all of these would not fit the Hunter's point of view; comparing these creatures to the Hunter's size makes him be on par with them, or even bigger)

Gluttonous husk "corpulent"

Tiktik "small, sharp claws"

Sharp baldur "bred for battle"

Battle obble "raised in the Colloseum. Although trained for combat, its movements and attacks are still haphazard"

Shardmite "feeds on crystal dust"

(this ties in with the "scientific education" section a bit, but these observations seem like something a smaller creature would make- the Hunter certainly wouldn't bother)

Grub mimic "assumes the shape of a harmless creature to lure prey"/ "a weak little grub"

The Collector "dark figure locked inside the Tower of Love. Preserves Hallownest's creatures in glass jars with particular attention given to Grubs"./"a shadow that sometimes flits through the caverns, making strange noises to itself. I've never seen it clearly so I have no idea what type of creature it is" (the Narrator knows more than the Hunter- they have met the Collector personally)

The narrator respects skill, and values courage and honour, while the Hunter doesn't:

Hornet "skilled"

Dung Defender "skilled combatant", "assails intruders"

Hive knight "loyal protector", "ferocious in battle"

Mantis lords "finest warriors"

Belfly "will give its own life"/"no regard for its own life" (the Narrator respects self-sacrifice?)

Husk warrior "wields a nail and shell"

Moss knight "trained in the ways of the Nail and the Shell" (note the difference: capitalization of Nail and Shell when it's a respected foe)

Mantis youth "proud tribe"

Royal retainer "most loyal and devout"/"simple, weak"

Traitor lord "deposed", "turned against his sisters"

Shielded fool "fighting for glory"

Husk dandy "limited offensive ability"

Stalking devout "worshippers of Herrah the Beast"

Zote:

Zote "a self-proclaimed Knight, of no renown. Wields a nail he carved from shellwood, named "Life Ender" (the Knight is then not self-proclaimed??? Where did their title come from?!)

Grey prince zote "figment of an obsessed mind. Lacks grace but becomes stronger with every defeat" (the Hunter obviously wouldn't know that)

Winged zoteling "grudgingly assists its master in combat by lazily flying towards foes in a nonthreatening manner"

Volatile zoteling "deals poorly with the pressure of existing and quickly explodes"

I copied almost the entire thing about Zote, because this is the most emotional, petty, and subjective the Narrator gets.

This is all to say: I believe it is the Knight writing these entries, and that this can tell us a lot about their personality.

My only issue, as usual:

Primal aspid "wilder, ancestral form of the Aspid. Once thought extinct, they have reappeared st the edges of the world." ??? How would they know that ???

Actually, there might be another, real issue: the Dream Warriors get additional lore in their descriptions which the Knight might not have knowledge about... Unless the Dreamnail grants it after defeating them? I'll go with that. That's the biggest hole in my argument though.

#long post #hollow knight #hollow knight meta #hollow knight theory #sorry about this #don't mind me this is mostly something to link to in another post

[ospreyeamon]

hornet and the giant spider that wasn’t there

Unlike for Monomon the Teacher and Lurien the Watcher, there is no boss fight gating access to Herrah the Beast. This is a source of disappointment for some players, especially since there is a cut content screenshot of a very, very large spider.

What Team Cherry was planning [Image description: The Knight stands on a platform in the foreground. In the background four huge eyes, each larger than the Knight's entire body, are visible. Most of the chamber and the giant spider is hidden by darkness.]

What Team Cherry went with [Image description: Hornet sits beside the altar that held Herrah's body in the central chamber of Deepnest. The room is filled with cobwebs and candles, torn banners showing a emblem with six eyes hang from the ceiling.]

From an out of universe perspective this is probably the result of Team Cherry running out of time/money, not being able to refine the fight to an acceptable quality, wanting to give a different feel to the three Dreamers, and/or prioritising Hornet’s moment of characterisation in a game that has plenty of other boss fights.

In universe, the reason the Knight doesn’t have to battle a spider fifty times their size is because Hornet follows them into Deepnest to call the spider off.

When the Knight awakens from the Dream in which they have killed Herrah, they find Hornet sitting on the altar beside her mother’s body. She knows that the Knight must destroy the three Dreamers to break the Seal on the Black Egg Temple – Hornet is trying to guide the Knight towards the Dream No More ending – and so her mother must die if there is to be a chance of saving Hallownest. It still grieves her. This is the first time that the Knight leaves Hornet rather than Hornet skipping away from them; she remains in the chamber to mourn while the Knight continues their quest.

Hallownest’s glory cannot be renewed, but Hornet is determined to save as many of the realm’s inhabitants as she believes can be saved. After the Knight proves themself in their battle in Greenpath, Hornet begins to offer advice and even a rare instance of help.

Calling off the giant spider isn’t something Hornet does for the Knight’s sake though – she does it for the spider. Hornet by this point has lost her foster-mother Vespa, sire the Pale King, is about to loose Herrah, and has doubtless seen dozens of bugs she has known have their minds destroyed by the Infection or be killed by Infected bugs. There aren’t many survivors left past Hallownest’s fall – only the Midwife, the Mask Maker, a single skittish Weaver, and the not-friends remain in Deepnest that we see, contrasted with the swarms of Infected enemies. Herrah’s guardian must be someone that Hornet knows. Someone who, like the Midwife, was part of Herrah’s inner circle and so part of Hornet’s childhood. If the spider guardian remains unInfected then Hornet can request they stand down rather than risk the Knight killing them; naturally Hornet chooses to do just that.

#Hallownest Walking Tour #hollow knight meta #Hornet #Deepnest #a wild headcanon appeared #character death cw

[ladybugboots]

let me help you

#ok it took me a long while to get around to post this for multiple reasons so whatever #alt caption: the threads that bind us #click for quality please!!!!! i never say that but ik it looks like shit on mobile #hollow knight #hornet #the hollow knight #ghost #fan art #id in alt text #okay so i'd love to know what ppl make of the caption #bc i had something in mind but when i asked some friends i got a different responses #hornet killing the vessels as her duty but she sees it as maybe mercy killing bc she pitys their fate #so she's saying it to that vessel #and then thk saying it to ghost by way of their self impalement (orz) #and ALSO. ghost to thk: helping kill the broken vessel either to take their place or end the radiance whichever ending #and my friend thought of hornet to ghost because of her needle coming in #and then a bit of a stretch and kinda meta but hornet by killing that vessel allows ghost to get the mothwing cloak lol #hk spoilers #<HELP

[saltyfinalboss]

doodles + some donation reqs from the fundraiser streams so far ^_^

tysm to those who donated and i look forward to streaming for this event again if it becomes an annual one!!

#hollow knight #hk #my art #digital art #finalbossdoodles #the knight #lol #cookie run #kirby #saltandvinegart #silksong #lacenet #1k #stream art #veigar #meta knight #galacta knight #pitaya dragon cookie #hollyberry cookie #poppy #lace #hornet