I really love Hollow Knight: Silksong. So much so that I'm making a video on it, and why it is the greatest game ever and a perfect sequel. Or at least that was the plan. I kinda went in way over my head and the scale of the project is overwhelming me as executive disfunction prevents me from sitting down to edit the video. In the event that this video actually never gets out, I want to put out my thoughts on the story somewhere.
Hollow Knight is the story of two gods, the Radiance and the Pale King. The primary struggle of the story is between these two gods trying to preserve their kingdoms. The Pale King is what we can consider the protagonist of this retrospective, but the Radiance's position as the antagonist is also of great importance. As the god of dreams and light, this presents a narrative that seems to be the antithesis to most. The dreams of the bugs of Hallownest are enslaving them, and it is these dreams that bring about this worlds downfall.
To save his kingdom, the Pale King has to utilize the antithesis to this hope. To create a being without the will to reach for dreams that would trap the light. As we know, this fails, because the Hollow Knight does develop dreams of its own. Hope is literally what causes the kingdom to fall. The folly of Hallownest being hope is easy to interpret. From this, we get a narrative that seemingly tells us to not hope. To not dream. The Pale King's attempt to save everyone fails. Doom and gloom, yada yada yada.
But is that really what this story means? Let's take a closer look at what the Pale King actually did to save his kingdom. Actually, let's go a step further back. What was his kingdom?
From what we're told, Hallownest was a grand kingdom because of the Pale King. His light elevated the minds of his subjects and was what allowed for society. In other words, the Pale King was his own kingdom, and without him, it would fundamentally not exist. Thus, any attempts to save his kingdom would fundamentally be an attempt to save himself.
Indeed, the Pale King's actions are simultaneously both noble and self-centered. His entire plan to stop the Radiance was to trap it in his offspring. The plan to save his kingdom was the same as the plan for the kingdom itself. Him. The Pale King. The salvation would come from him. Furthermore, his attempts at creating them were to leave them with no personality. Basically just objects without individuality. His children would not be people. And thus, the salvation would come from no one but himself.
Speaking of the Vessels, the role Void plays is also not to be overlooked. Void has a whole bunch of symbology tied to it. It is described literally as regrets, and is compared to a stain left on this world when we die. The exact antithesis to the Radiance and dreams. The Pale King put himself in direct opposition to the hopes and dreams of his subjects, their goals and aspirations. What they wanted and what they wanted to be. All the Pale King wanted them to be was his subjects. Defined by him. And he used the manifestation of regrets for this. Those that didn't have the ability to follow their dreams. Symbolically, his subjects being too weak to be anything but his subjects was how he planned to keep his kingdom alive.
And that was his downfall. To think he was the great man Hallownest needed. He gave himself the burden of the whole kingdom. He was the reason it ran. He was what would save them. He was a higher being in a world of lesser bugs, who would die without them. And so when his plans go to shit, what does he do? He runs away. He tries to save himself. Because, well intentioned or not, the Pale King was a fascist. The great man that made Hallownest possible. Without him, society would crumble. And that was his ultimate folly. To think that one man could make a kingdom last forever.
While never explicitly stated, I believe that the Void was indeed what killed the Pale King. He thought his kingdom could last forever if only he did. If only he was the one with power. If only everyone else were just lesser bugs that could never follow their dreams. What Void represented was integral to Hallownest. And a kingdom held up by those it holds down can never last forever. Void killed the Pale King both figuratively and literally. The Pale King was Hallownest, and Hallownest was built upon the ideals of Void. Ideals that could never hold up a kingdom. Hallownest collapsed upon itself because its foundation, bugs rejecting their nature and dreams, could never last. Hallownest was a world designed to be without hope, and so how could it see to a tomorrow the instant its existence was challenged? Void killed Hallownest by failing to hold it up. And the regrets of fallen bugs that could never accomplish their dreams killed the Pale King.
Did you pick this up when you played Hollow Knight? I didn't. We are told this story from the Pale Kings fallen kingdom, and so naturally the story it tells us is from the Pale King's perspective. And that makes it very easy to see the story of Hallownest and think that what it's saying is that hope is bad, dreams are bad, everything's bad, dream no more and embrace the void. Expect the worst. Don't get attached. And I think that stuck with a lot of people in some way, which we'll get to later. But it stuck with someone else, too. Hornet.
In Hollow Knight, Hornet starts out as another servant of her father's ideals. The attempt to save Hallownest failed, and the idea there could be any hope for change is laughable. The only thing that allows for the slightest bit of relief from the disaster brought by hopes and dreams is the machinations of the Pale King. And she defends this static solution fiercely. After being defeated however, she embraces the slightest possibility of change. She tests a different vessel to see if it has what it takes to be the new linchpin holding the stasis together or strike down the source of dreams altogether. What would this all amount to? Continuing or ending the stasis of an already fallen kingdom. When actually looking at it, Hornet doesn't really change over the course of the game. She might think change is possible, but the same ideals of her father she sees through no matter what. Despite knowing her father a failure, she cannot recognize the flaws in his ideals. The only thing she seems to criticize him and the White Lady for is trying to save the kingdom. She began without hope, and the only hope she ended with was that the hopes that killed this kingdom would die.
I think that Hollow Knight was the perfect storm for pessimism in regards to its sequel. Hollow Knight was such a perfect game. And how could tweaking perfection do anything but ruin it? Sure, Silksong wouldn't be a bad game, but the changes made to it would surely only make it imperfect. Maybe what we have is fine. Maybe don't fix what isn't broken. Maybe we should live in stasis, worshiping this one game, this one story, forever. A lot of this is what I was expecting Silksong to be. A good game, but something that couldn't compare to the mastery of the original. That is what I took away from Hollow Knight. To expect the worst. And I don't want to speak for everyone, but I don't think I was alone. I think some level of pessimism was shared among the Hollow Knight community. Yes, it's time I talk about Silkposting.
Silksong was announced back in February of 2019, and came out over six and a half years later. That's a long time, but I was surprised to learn it was only that long. It felt a lot longer. And what happens to a fandom when it goes so long without change? Brainrot. I don't think I need to explain Silkposting to you. But a certain category of Silkposts contain something of interest. A number of people would pretend that Silksong was already out, and talk about stuff in the game. But for many of these, what they imagined in the game were things that, well, would suck. Is this mostly just a joke? Probably. But I think this is telling of a worry people had on that game. That it would be a disappointment. A failure. That they spent all that time waiting for something that wouldn't hold up.
This long period of nothing after Hollow Knight is something Hornet also went through. Which finally gets us to Silksong. Silksong takes place a very, very long time after Hollow Knight. So, how has Hornet changed in this time? It doesn't seem like she has. Hornet is not painted as a hero. She is motivated by her own self interests and only helps others if she gets something out of it. And looking at this world of faith, she's rather skeptical, even pessimistic. And once again, she isn't the only one.
What did you think when you first came across Sherma? I'll tell you what I thought. This is this game's Myla. Sherma is going to die horribly. And regardless of how well the rest of this applies to most people, I'm sure at least half of you came to the same conclusion. This is how Silksong begins. Both us and Hornet have been primed to expect the worst. And Silksong is about us learning to grow past this.
Silksong has a lot more hope than Hollow Knight did. Let me ask you this. How many times can multiple NPC's be found in Hollow Knight outside of Dirtmouth? Outside of the DLC's, I don't think that happens at all. There's two settlements left standing in the world, and one of them is at first very hostile to your presence. Not exactly what I'd call a safe space. In contrast, Silksong has multiple standing settlements that are open to your presence. Bone Bottom, Fleetopia, Pilgrims Rest, and Halfway Home are all clear havens for travelers and survivors even as Pharloom suffers a similar affliction to Hallownest. This kingdom is suffering a similar fate to Hallownest, but there's much more life here. There's still hope in this kingdom. So then, do you dare to hope and try for the best?
Hornet makes a clear and positive impact upon Pharloom along her quest. The Wish system is named like that for a reason. You aren't just doing a side quest, you are fulfilling the wishes of bugs and rewarding your hope. And one of the only notable sidequests in the last game, the grubs, are replaced by the fleas, who this time can actually talk to you and thank you for helping them. And Bellhart and Songclave are very clear and big ways Hornet is helping Pharloom. You are making a positive impact on the world. You are given reasons to hope. This hope is certainly tested, but not nearly as much as Hollow Knight did with its numerous character deaths. A notable example of course being Sherma, who doesn't die horribly. You are allowed to make true change. And so is Hornet.
Hornet is outwardly quite standoffish and doesn't seem to care about much. She claims she doesn't care about people, but we're given glimpses into how she truly is. It's been said many times, but Hornet's defining attribute is that she is the fakest IDGAFer ever. She practices her aura farming, she writes about her love of fluffy things in her diary, she canonically fucked, etc. She'd claim that time has only hardened her shell, but the bugs of Pharloom were more than capable of getting through it. One of the most powerful examples of this is when she first comes across Bellhart. After she sees the citizens suspended by silk, she does not say anything. She does not react. But wordlessly, her intentions are clear. A new main quest is added. Free Bellhart. No one asked her to do this. There's no indication she'd get anything from it. But that's what she sets her mind to regardless. As the game progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious Hornet is invested in the well being of the bugs of Pharloom. And that comes to a head in Songclave. The Caretaker can be seen as a mirror to Hornet, sharing much of her perceived pessimism, but also clearly invested in the well-being of the pilgrims. And yet the idea of Hornet ending the haunting he doesn't quite take as a good thing, and it soon becomes apparent why.
Hope is a pretty important theme in Silksong, but one of the key aspects of it is a specific type of hope. Faith. Religion is obviously a pretty big focus of Silksong, and what's also quite obvious is that Silksong has quite a few criticisms of it, specifically how religious leaders abuse the faith of their followers. I don't really think I have to say much, the Underworks does the talking for me. A lot of this wasn't even done by Grand Mother Silk, rather the conductors, using the pilgrims to seal away the very center of their worship. That's a metaphor if I've ever seen one. At every turn, Silksong emphasizes how the blind faith of the Pilgrims is punished with death. I'd love to go in depth on Blasted Steps and Sinners Road, which I believe are great finales to Act 1, but this is already getting long enough and I want to keep at least some surprises for the video if I ever finish it.
Hornet appeared to Pharloom as its savior. And so her replacing the Grand Mother as the curse of Pharloom is a culmination of all the perils of hope and faith this game and series seemingly centers itself around. The faith in this savior paid off about as well as the faith in any other God in the series. And once again, the fine details of this matter a lot. We're finally getting to the real meat of Silksong. In the bad ending, Hornet essentially becomes Pharloom's new idol, following in the footsteps of her father. Because what Silksong is really about is Hornet and us learning to discard the philosophy of her father that polluted her view of why Hallownest failed. Which brings us to the antithesis of this.
Lace is such an amazing and layered character that keeping it brief is almost impossible but I'll do my best to not have this entire essay be about Lace even though Lace is basically what Silksong is about. You probably know that Lace mirrors both Hornet and the Vessels, specifically the Hollow Knight, but this is done in so many amazing ways that make this story so great. To start, let's discuss how the creation of Lace mirrors that of the Hollow Knight.
The Pale King wanted followers. In the same way, Grand Mother Silk wanted daughters. So they raised the minds of lesser bugs to create sentient life (the specifics of what happened with the Pale King aren't as clearly cut out as for Grand Mother Silk. I could see the idea that the Pale King just fucking lied about raising the minds of his subjects, but I think that him expanding the minds of his subjects was basically more or less what Grand Mother Silk did to make the Weavers). The bugs of Hallownest's dreams however threatened the rule of the Pale King. Likewise, the Weavers rebelled and usurped the Grand Mother. The Pale King's solution to his problem was to do it right this time. Create a being completely free of free will, exactly what he wanted in his subjects.
And that's also what Grand Mother Silk did to free herself. I subscribe to the belief that one of the reasons Lace was created was to kill the people in the Citadel to silence the song keeping Silk in slumber. In this way, both the Hollow Knight and Lace were ways to regain control of their parents kingdoms. But Lace was also meant to be what her mother had failed to do before. Create a perfect child. And that meant perfect obedience. Not a daughter, but a doll. I don't think either of the Pale Beings properly understood this philosophy, and believed they were doing what a ruler and parent should. But this is the reality of their actions. And of course, both of them were flawed creations with desires of their own. That flaw would ultimately spell the downfall of both as they became the instrument for their demise.
Lace however is a much more complicated character than the Hollow Knight. Like the Hollow Knight, she does want to be what she was made to be, but that is in spite of her hatred for her mother. And somehow, she finds the same outlet for both feelings. Killing Hornet, both to stop her mother from getting her power, and to prove she is better than her. Lace is as much this games Hornet as she is this games Hollow Knight. She too carries an incredibly pessimistic outlook, so much so that she considers Hornet an optimist. Lace is the incarnation of this series' opposition to hope, attempting to keep the world in a horrible stasis rather than consider anything could change.
And that all comes to a head in Act 3, as Lace is directly responsible for the end of Pharloom, darkness consuming everything Hornet has worked for. The very embodiment of death and despair. And what form does the darkness take to mock Hornet? Lace, of course, eager to tell Hornet how she's actually dead. In life and in death, she mocks Hornet at every opportunity, welcoming her to the end. Lace already showed hints of suicidal ideation before, but that's no longer subtext as the literal manifestation of Hornet's regrets tells her to revel in the end. Hornet definitely picked up on how similar Lace's predicament is to the Vessels, as shown in her journal when she specifies "This one, the dark shall not take." and so her death at the hand of Void is the perfect thing to crush her hope, as if Act 3 wasn't filled with enough of them already.
And then we have my favorite boss in any game, Lost Lace. A final duel between Hornet and Lace that is so peak it's incredible. It starts as a one on one duel, before Lost Lace pulls out more shit to overwhelm Hornet. Then, the shadow has a fake-out death just like Lace did before. And in phase 3, it goes absolutely insane, the shadow speeding up to overwhelm you even more. And in phase 4, it pulls out one of 2.5 attacks in the game that do 3 damage.
Something is off. Void is supposed to be without emotions. But it seems almost as if something inside the shadow is trying very, very hard to stop you. This doesn't just seem like Void took the shape of Lace. And indeed, eventually, the truth is revealed, as the darkness peels back to reveal Lace underneath it.
Lace was never dead, and the shadow talking to Hornet wasn't just a manifestation of Hornet's regrets. It was Lace telling her to give up. Regardless of whether or not this was actually Lace or the Void absorbing her personality like with the Collector, Lace's will transcended the void so she could fake her death for the second time and get Hornet to abandon her. The Void does influence, but the Void alone couldn't outright control other bugs. It was the silk. Lost Lace is not the Void controlling Lace's body to fight you. Lost Lace is Lace willingly accepting the Void. But why?
Here's the deal with Lace. She was raised in this failing kingdom and sees fully the flaws in it. And yet she doesn't. Everything she knows is this dystopia, and she cannot understand a world outside of it. This is what the world is to her. All she's ever known is lies and death. And because of it, she sees existence itself as horrible. Lace was given the same circumstances as Hornet, seeing a crumbling kingdom through the perspective of failure given to them by their parents. But while Hornet learns the flaws of her father's philosophy in Silksong, Lace stands as the antithesis to this. There is no other outlook. There is no hope for something else. There is no truth past the lie.
And the idea that a better world is possible scares her. What Hornet is learning, Lace is trying to suppress. Hornet mirrors Lace, and Lace is terrified of seeing hope in that mirror. So she tries to shatter it. At every turn she tries to crush Hornet's hope. Hornet stood in opposition to Ghost because she didn't believe things could change, but Lace stands in opposition to Hornet because she doesn't want things to change.
But despite how hard she fights, there's still a glimmer of hope in her. And she tries everything to erase it. Lost Lace isn't just a fight between Hornet and Lace. It is Lace fighting her reflection. She drowned herself in darkness so that any idea of being an individual with aspirations and a life would end, and it didn't work. Darkness doesn't fight this hard. Lace does. Lace fights harder than almost anyone else to kill herself. To kill the version of herself that hopes despite everything. Despite all the tragedies in Hollow Knight and Silksong, Hornet can still hope for a better tomorrow even as the world crumbles around her. She's learned that a better world is possible, and how it is possible.
Think about what causes the true end. You can't start the Silk and Soul quest until you do a lot to build up the communities of Pharloom. Whereas the bad ending has Hornet take the fate of Pharloom into her own hands, the true ending has Hornet not become its new idol, but work to let the people of Pharloom live on their own. Because that is where the Pale King failed.
A nation built upon a man will at best live until he falls. It is inherently an extension of the self, the people being the cells that composes the body. And a cell that goes beyond its function, and a threat to the body. In other words, monarchies are built upon the leader and the cogs in the machine. Self expression is shunned and shamed, framed as the imperfections to the perfect system. But that isn't the nature of life. Free will and our flaws are parts of who we are, and fascism can't "fix" that. And that is the Pale King's folly. Not that he tried to save his kingdom. But that his kingdom was designed by him to fail. To think that something would be so perfect that it could save a kingdom forever (I'm also talking about the Hollow Knight by the way, I'm not exactly sure how to cleanly slot this in but the Vessels could never contain the Radiance and are representative of the Pale King's flawed mindset). Grand Mother Silk followed in the footsteps of the Pale King almost every step. But the difference between them is that the Pale King died not knowing where he went wrong.
When Lace betrayed her and cast her into the Void, Grand Mother Silk was probably furious. Her own daughter attempted to kill her. She was put in a position where her clinging to life required her to give the darkness a path to destroy her world. And eventually, it would fail, and the darkness would kill her. It was already seeping in. She gazed into the regrets inside her shell, and found herself weak, suspended by her own power. Where had she gone wrong?
I don't know exactly how she found the answer. I also don't know if she originally spun the cocoon to protect Lace or herself at first. And I don't know if Lace said anything to her inside the cocoon. But whatever happened, Grand Mother Silk found that despite Lace's flaws, she loved her. And she would die for her. She would lose everything she had worked for all for her. And judging by her disposition when we found her, I think she did some self-reflecting. Seeing how eager Lace is to end everything she'd given Lace including her own life, she had to stop, and instead of imposing onto Lace her own will, realize how much it hurt to be made without a mind to think, without a will to break, without a voice to cry suffering. Because she had all those. She failed to be the daughter Silk wanted her to be, and pretending to be it was killing her. Lace hadn't failed to be a daughter. Lace failed to be her daughter. It was her who failed to be a mother.
And I believe that in her final moments, she realized what being a mother meant. Not to mold them to your every whim and lord over them forever. Not to make them an extension of yourself. Not to be their entire world, everything they need. But to raise them, nurture them. Help them grow, then watch them grow. Let them grow into their own person. And prepare them so that you can hope that when you aren’t around, they will still stand, they will still grow, and they will still live. That is what Silksong is about. What it truly means to save someone.
I lied when I said Silksong was the perfect sequel. I do think it is the greatest game ever, but Silksong is riddled with flaws, from levels to bosses to the very controls, in ways Hollow Knight wasn't. Hollow Knight was truly a near perfect game. There were, at best, mediocre parts of the game. Not really any bad parts. Not like Silksong. Silksong is not the perfect game Hollow Knight was. And yet, I think it is so much greater. There's beauty in its imperfections too. Its failures are part of its attempts to be something new. Its painful parts are part of how it says what it has to say. It's tempting to be so obsessed with perfection that you don't fix what isn't broken in fear of ruining things. Sometimes change can be bad. Sometimes it does make things worse. Sometimes our attempts to hope for something greater only hurt us. But if we just accepted what we had and didn't dare to hope for something greater, we wouldn't have gotten a game as incredible as Hollow Knight: Silksong.
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