I hate it when people try to project human morality or biological conventions onto the Hollow Knight bugs bro, this is a world where an expectant mother casually mentions that the children of her species often eat their mother after hatching and Hornet is neither surprised nor bothered by this in the slightest bc she's seen it happen a shitload of times before- to which the Huntress gets defensive because she thinks Hornet might judge her as selfish for NOT letting her children eat her alive. If u fail to find and complete this quest in time then her clutch WILL eat her and Hornet just comments that this is a fate 'all too common, perhaps'. All but one of the children would have scattered by this point, having been hatched with the ability to walk, talk, and fend for themselves without any parental care or guidance. Hornet assists the runt only by offering them enough meat to moult into a tougher shell, then leaves the newborn bug behind to fend for themselves with nothing more than a 'good luck' wish.
The members of this society do NOT work on the morality or developmental timescale that humans do. They act exactly like what you'd expect if a bunch of bugs got struck by the human-level intelligence beam- that being that they still very much act like bugs, they just have a bipedal stance and actual language now. Personally as a biologist and a behaviorist, this is one of the reasons why I love the world of Hollow Knight so much, but it sure as hell does make discourse around some of the actions and age ranges of the bugs somewhat annoying, because you can't project your own human viewpoint onto these characters without warping their stories in the process.
Which is to say, 'bug people are very much not like human people' is a very long-winded explanation as to why Grimm is not a bad father, Hornet's killing of the Green Prince was not out of line, why PK and WL's mass infanticide is coded in-game as regrettable and tragic rather than monstrous, why so many of these damn bugs seem extremely content to either fight to the death or die in horrific and unusual ways (bc thats just what bugs do irl), and why guessing the approximate human age equivalents of some bugs is going to be difficult/nigh-on impossible.
This isn't necessarily something I believe people do intentionally, as our mammalian/primate viewpoints are hard-coded into us for a reason, but it does become very tiring after seeing repeated iterations of discourse or confusion emerging that can be very simply boiled down to 'that is a bug thing, they are being bugs'. Let us expand on how that affects woldbuilding and society/behavior below.
If a newborn carnivore can walk, talk, and reason with others right from birth, then it explains why young characters like the flea youth/Sherma, Myla, Bretta, Nuu, and Ghost are allowed to venture out on their own/hold up jobs and houses/kill god without any of the other characters batting an eye at it- and why people assume that Hornet is young and just roll with it. Different types of insects have different life stages that they go through, which presents in different levels of capability. If we're going off of the moulting system that bugs do irl as well, then it's entirely possible for environmental stressors to cause stunting, as lack of sufficient nutrients prevents bugs from growing and moulting- but different moults are tied to certain benchmarks of physical development, such as progressing out of a larval form, wing development, and sexual maturity (with sexual maturity typically being the last moult, rather than something that occurs in the early years of life like it does in vertebrates). This means that there can be bugs who are much older than they physically appear due to environmental hardships, which locked them in what we'd associate as a juvenile/adolescent body plan*. I personally don't believe that this can be equated to the old vampire-esque concept of an adult trapped in a child's body, because the brain is also part of the body and is likely going to reflect the physical form that it's commandeering; most likely what this would present as is an individual who has the wisdom and technical skill of the many years they've lived, but who lacks the ability for mature mental and emotional processing, gets physically and mentally tired quicker, lacks interest in behaviors associated with sexual reproduction, and retains childish interests/lack of impulse control. Bugs who go through larval stages rather than being born as nymphs are also more likely to have a childhood closer to what a human infant requires, as they are more vulnerable than nymphs after hatching (though the baby judges certainly seem to be fine on their own).
LIKEWISE, the prevalence of suicidal ideation and the casual approach to death in this universe makes a lot more sense when you consider the fact that these are bugs who have been artificially ascended into a higher state of existence, as the vast majority of bugs irl are...really, really good at dying. While we can assume that the lifespans of many species have been extended beyond that of their simpler cousins, that doesn't change the fact that for a lot of bugs, their instincts are centered solely on the desire to eat, fuck, and die- often in that exact order. Death is a constantly present and ever-looming factor of life. If we assume that prey species make up the bulk of kingdom populations (as seems to be the case in both Hallownest and Pharloom), then the vast majority of them are essentially running on mouse software of 'live fast, die hard, and have a lot of babies in the process'. These bugs have been ascended above their more primal bretheren, but they've only been bumped up a few spots on the trophic level, and more long-lived predator species like Weavers and Higher Beings are still going to loom way above them no matter how advanced they become. In more typical human-centric fantasy terms, most bugs are humans, Weaverkin are elves, and Higher Beings- ignoring the whole god thing- are dragons. Mortal bugs have short lifespans, high population density, and are the lowest on the trophic scale. Weavers have long lifespans, lower population density, and once regarded other bugs as food, before they decided to utilize their natural gifts to become protectors of those weaker than them (as hinted in the lore tablets and weaver effigies scattered throughout Pharloom). Higher Beings are apex predators that have an extremely low population density (typically 1 per kingdom), extremely long lifespans, and hold dominion/responsibility over every living thing present within their territories. To compare a Higher Being like Grand Mother Silk to a common pilgrim like Sherma would be like comparing an adult tigress to a mouse, or a whale to krill. The Higher Being of a kingdom is dependent on the mortals within their kingdom to survive, but the degrees of separation between how gods work and how mortal bug people work is so vast that trying to compare the two just doesn't work. Hornet killing any bug that gets in the way of her saving Pharloom isn't her being monstrous- it's just her nature/duty to do so. She had to poke around in memories to get the ingredients needed to kill GMS for good, the Green Prince got in the way, and so she killed him and took his heart for the purpose of the ritual. Interpret it as a mercy kill if you must, but both her Weaver and Wyrm parentage demanded it of her regardless. The Wyrm part because an obstacle in the way of usurping another Higher Being could not be tolerated, the Weaver part because it was her duty to protect those weaker than her. He stood in her way, so she dispatched him. Other bugs seeking death or purpose via combat (like the Pinmaster, Trobbio, and Second Sentinel) did not, so she saw no reason to end them. Predators typically kill for purpose rather than fun, and that's a trait we see reflected in Hornet beautifully.
Anyways yeah I sort of got lost in the sauce with rambling here, but tldr: Hollow Knight is one of the few stories out there with anthropomorphic animals who actually act like their origin species rather than humans in animal skins. Take advantage of it! Have fun with it!! Stop holding them to human standards/morality when this is a huge chance to escape it and come up with your own fun bug standards to hold your favs to!!!
(*Interestingly enough, early-life stressors or environmental deficits have also been linked to a reduction in cognitive development as adults. Mammals who were abused or neglected as children often fall behind in certain developmental benchmarks or retain childlike tendencies into adulthood, even if they were forced to 'grow up quickly' due to stress. This effect is most easily quantified in humans.)
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