Wow, yeah, it's almost like the franchise known and praised for it's environmental storytelling actually utilizes show don't tell to enhance it's narrative of subverting the fate forced upon you by circumstances beyond your control. What a concept.
Something that always makes me laugh is the rebuttal "Well you can't prove she ISN'T a child!!" When you call out the holes in the Lace = Child claim. No. That's not how that works. If YOU have made the claim that she is a child, the onus is on YOU to cite your sources and back up your claim. Absence of evidence is not evidence. Also, yeah, HK is comparable to Lace, actually. So is the Knight. You know why? Because we can infer information via context clues to deduce that they aren't hollow without needing to be told, like a certain someone else we know and love!
And it feels like a disservice to TC's incredible story to claim that only one of these is 'Part of The Plot™'. Why is Lace's character arc exempt from being plot relevant to Silksong, when she is a more present character than THK was in comparison? (Though THK is in the narrative in important ways regardless, not that screentime = importance.) What makes THK more 'lore' relevant than Lace? And also!! Understanding a story relies so much on picking up on context clues! Just like how we a are shown Ghost having independent thought and will. Just like how we are shown Ghosts origins. Just like how we are shown the littered corpses of other vessels across the game that culminates into the scene at the abyss, where we can infer via information that is shown to us without dialogue the events that led up to this.
And how HK's narrative is concluded with several endings that depict various outcomes depending on how closely they follow what they are "Supposed to be." And how it is generally agreed that the 'base' ending of taking THK's place is the worst ending, and rejecting the plan, rejecting what it was made to be, and fighting the radiance yourself leads to arguably better endings.
Lace quite literally attacks GMS in a symbolic and literal rejection of her fate. She is acting on her own accord. She is desperate to prove that she is more that what she was made to be.
I know dang well that, if these characters were male, or masc presenting, this conversation would be wayyy different. It does not escape me the vessels, including THK and Ghost, are often misgendered as 'male'. It does not escape me that Silksong has a narrative around women. It does not escape me that Lace is given far less respect in regards to her actions than THK. I constantly see Lace be called a 'brat' or 'spoiled'.
If Lace were a male character, these descriptors would never, ever be used. You could take the whole game, swap nothing but pronouns, and the fandom reception to the narrative would be far more respectful. If Lace and GMS were portrayed Father and Son rather than Mother and Daughter, Lace's rebellion against a predetermined conception would be seen as Noble rather than Petulant. Hornet calling Lace "Child" would be seen in a different light.
Because "Child" isn't being used as a descriptor of age! It almost never is, in Silksong! We know via context clues Why Hornet has Given Lace This Nickname and How It Changes Meaning As The Story Progresses.
"Child" Initially is used as a title after Lace threatens Hornets life, and Hornet responds, in kind, to show that Lace doesn't fucking scare her.
See how the context changes the meaning? See how context can be used to change the meaning of a narrative?
And then, "Child" also becomes a note of status, that Lace is a child, as in offspring of Pale status. Something that Hornet would recognize because she also holds the status of child as a title herself.
Hornet is the "Child of Three Queens." she is "The Gendered Child"
Hornet is also constantly called a child, as a way to denote her status. Constantly.
It is never used as a notation of age. Neither is it used for Lace.
Using context clues(!!) we can infer that the story is deliberately calling attention to and comparing the similarities and differences of Lace and Hornet as a narrative technique. At most it calls attention to the front she puts up as a means to protect herself, distancing herself from others.
Using context clues, we know now that Lace masks her true feelings behind this facade of jolly violence in order to protect herself from what she thinks she really is, A husk. A weak, wasting existence. That she is nothing more than an empty shell.
But she is not. We know she is not. Because we are shown she is not.
We are shown that she is more than a husk shaped to act as a child.
That is her arc. That she is more than what she was made to be.
We are more than what we are.
THAT is the primary message I get from this series. Dare I say it's THE message of the franchise.
You don't need a lore tablet to tell you that.
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