The half tragedy of Grand Mother Silk
Silksong's entire backstory is left pretty ambiguous and unsolved, and it leaves room for a ton of headcanons and opinions.
I wanted to share my idea on why I believe GMS to be a very unique, not innocent, but ALSO very tragic character at the same time.
Chapter 1: The arrival of a lonely god.
Via Pavo's interaction after freeing him, we can see that the memories of the collective consciousness that GMS created is primarily made of sad emotions and sad memories.
When GMS arrived in Pharloom, the land was already inhabited by 3 different tribes: The Skarrs, the Krust Bugs and the people of Verdania (of which we know nothing about, not even what their political position or situation was before her arrival, we don't even know if they were at war with one another).
Many things in the game imply that the destruction of the Coral Gorge has happened under the rules of the Weavers, but one of the Krust King needolin dialogue seems to imply that they were already fighting against the pale light of GMS, thus implying that SHE WAS ALREADY taking control of the bugs of Pharloom BEFORE being trapped (and most likely) before the Citadel was built (and maybe even before the Weavers were "created").
GMS has shown to be very possessive, mimicking the behaviour of the stereotypical god: pretending for everything to go like she wants and wanting everything and everyone to be just there for her needs.
But unlike someone like The Pale King or The Radiance, she looks like a very lonely and less powerful being, almost INFANTILE:
1) GMS is not capable of creating an entire new species like Radiance, choosing to change already existing bugs (creating a silk construct like Phantom is her very first attempt, but Lace and Phantom are still made from her body, like a little version of her or a doll, Radiance, while being a dream goddess, managed to create things that could even exist without her constant presence)
2) GMS, unlike the Pale King, doesn't have the vision for a more complex kingdom or the intelligence to create super complex machines or technology (she has to learn it first, she is not born with that intelligence).
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GMS, funnily enough, acts more like a curious spoiled child than a mother, a child that is slowly learning about the world around her without the supervision of an adult:
1) GMS wants everyone to be her servants.
2) GMS wants her daughters to just obey her.
3) GMS treats her daughters like dolls and playthings.
4) GMS gets mad and "cries" when things don't go her way.
5) GMS is "spoiled" to the point that even when she makes a better toy for herself she wants the old ones back.
6) GMS thinks first about herself always (until the end).
GMS is a goddess that was (this is more of my headcanon but bare with it for now) born pretty recently compared to Radiance or Pale King. She is a kid who wants to grow, she is, in a way, the most childish character in the story.
"I wanna be an adult!" Is something I can imagine her saying if she talked more (funny enough, her speaking in such a weird and almost incomplete way, sounds like a kid that is just learning to speak).
Of course this leads to the question: if she is technically a child, how was she able to create bugs with that much intelligence?
Simple: because for a mortal bug, the most base level of intelligence from a god can be overwhelming, while for GMS her mind is equal to a child, her sharing her intelligence with a lesser bug makes them instantly smarter than any other lesser bug.
When GMS ascended the Weavers, she was desperate to have someone that spent time praising and loving her, this to me makes me think of a god who is very lonely and desperate for attention. Of course, being a spoiled child (and a GOD) she is incapable of realising that forcing these bugs to become this smart and forcing them to be forever with her and singing for her eternally just to satisfy her, is NOT a good behaviour.
Chapter 2: The rebellion of the Weavers.
Once the Weavers decided to rebel, GMS had already eradicated the Krust Bugs tribe (at least partially), the Skarrs had already lost their minds to her power (most likely after Karmelita had lost her youth and voice to keep them free from her control) and Verdania was the only one yet to be destroyed/conquered.
During the time period when she was asleep, she couldn't control the bugs anymore (especially the ones that arrived after the ones she already took control over), most of which were the inhabitants of the Citadel, all of which (or most of them) that came from outside Pharloom (from the surface) shown by the needolin memory in the nameless town at the top, saying that the "spiders were calling them down".
The Weavers started creating the system of the Citadel to create the eternal song to keep her trapped, and started making the bugs use her silk to make them eternal so they could keep the song going nonstop.
Due to them becoming more corrupt with power, the Weavers started neglecting the song and the Citadel system more and more just to enjoy their godlike status, and has they neglected the bugs, leaving them to do the experiments and everything, they unconsciously caused their own demise.
This negligence allowed GMS to take control of these bugs again (via the silk implanting experiments), and slowly stop the song to reawaken more and more.
After the Weavers escaped, she managed, through moments of semi-waken states to create 2 silken children: Phantom (the imperfect one that was banished like a discarded doll) and Lace (the actual perfect one, and despite that, treated more like a consolation prize):
"Better a child spun mad than none."
"Better a child spun frail than none."
"Better a child spun pure than them."
GMS, in her child like mind and ways of thinking, is filled with sad memories, which most likely are about how SHE is the victim and everyone else is the one hurting her, because she sees herself as the one who got hurt, not the bugs she enslaved or her daughters who she treated like dolls or just possessions.
So she, spoiled like the goddess she is, creates two more daughters for her own ego and desire to be loved, but then she gets mad at the idea that her previous toys left after hurting her and wants them back, both because she wants her original toys to return to her and also to punish the "bullies" who mistreated her after everything she "did for them".
GMS is incapable of understanding that what she does is NOT GOOD, she thinks everything is owed to her because she is more powerful, even the daughter of one of her daughters.
Hornet.
Chapter 3: Born as a child, died as a mother.
GMS, after she is about to be dragged into the void, tries to catch Hornet, but by the way it looks, it almost looks more like she's desperately trying to ask "why". GMS is terrified, from her perspective she got beaten and bullied by the daughter of her one of her daughters and about to be dragged down into a abyss of nothingness. She's scared, she pretends answers, and she is mad at Hornet for being another bully.
Her desire to obtain back her daughters and absorb their power is both a way to punish them and to have them be there with her forever. Of course, she gets interrupted by Lace and both fall into the void... and ONLY there, she finally gets to see the pain she caused her daughter.
At first, when she tries to protect her daughter from the void, I believe is just from wanting to keep her LAST TOY alive, to save the last thing she has, the last of her possessions. But as they spend time there, looking at the desperation of Lace and her desire to be loved just like her, she probably came to understand the pain she caused her creations, and only at the very end, for the first AND last time in her life, GMS does something not for herself but for someone else, by giving her remaining strands to Hornet to save her last daughter, only then, for the first AND last time, Grand Mother Silk becomes an ACTUAL MOTHER.
Conclusions:
GMS is a very tragic character, unlike Pale King and Radiance, she is a very young and childish goddess, incapable of understanding what her actions do to the lesser bugs, which is something the other two are actually very aware of (Pale King was aware of his actions and wanted to create a paradise for the lesser bugs, and Radiance was aware that she was torturing innocents just to fulfil her revenge).
GMS is not innocent, and she is not fully forgivable for the way she treated her children and subjects, but by the way she acts it shows that she is just a very naive, spoiled and ignorant beast, a kid that was born with TOO MUCH POWER, and without the intelligence and/or a guide to help her on how to use them in the right way.
She was born a lonely child, born from nothing like any other god, and desperately wanted affection and companionship, while also wanting said companions to think EXACTLY like her, and in the end, she finally understood what she did was wrong, and provided her last daughter with her first act of ACTUAL LOVE.
In the end, everything was her ignorance fault, and like I already said, she's not fully forgivable, but is also a victim of herself.