I have always struggled to understand why people believe the Pale King has the ability to discern whether vessels are "pure," and would kill those judged as unqualified as a result.
Hasn't anyone considered that, if this theory holds true, how could THK evade PK's inspection?
Were all the previous vessels idiots who didn't know to disguise themselves?
Moreover, if THK was really "smart" enough to know it had to disguise itself, why would it risk coming before PK? And why did the Knight in the cutscene climb up just to die?
It makes absolutely no sense.
To prop up the view that "Pale King is a cold-blooded baby-killing enthusiast," they forcibly turn all the vessels—including THK and the protagonist—into a bunch of truly "mindless" fools who would charge forward without hesitation, even with a meat grinder right in front of them.
Even more contradictory is that, even if we assume the Pale King is truly an evil murderer (oh, that's so stupid)... wait, we actually have another character who did the "killing unqualified vessels" thing.
Yet most fans still regard that character as an admirable hero, even though she tries to kill the protagonist twice in the game.
Of course, we all know Hornet has her reasons for doing so. Based on the game's text and the main theme it aims to convey, we all know that it cannot be interpreted this way.
But if we ignore the facts and force the "evil Pale King" theory to hold at all costs, Hornet becomes someone who knows full well her father is an infant-killing lunatic, yet still helps that lunatic father protect his damned kingdom and assists in slaughtering the remaining siblings who luckily escaped death.
It's just plain stupid even reading it as text. The entire message the game intends to convey is utterly destroyed.
What truly happened in Hallownest is a tragedy; the game's theme is the confrontation between order and instinct.
It's not the absurd story of "Someone did bad things, so everything that happened afterward is what he deserved. But he stubbornly refuses to die properly, causing everyone to suffer along with him. Yet those victims are all fools, willing to sacrifice their lives to perpetuate the tyrant's personal interests, including being separated from their daughter who was born not long ago."
If the game really wanted us to think that way, it wouldn't make us feel that Hallownest as a whole is a beautiful place.
There wouldn't be Elegy for Hallownest, there wouldn't be a character like Ogrim, and the condemnation would be much stronger—like what TC did in Silksong.
It would be more like something that's beautiful on the outside but rotten inside, a decaying thing that deserves to perish as such.
The Knight wouldn't accept the King's Brand and become the new king.