“Hollow knight has only one canon ending, Embrace the void! Silksong confirms this by being set after it!”
Team cherry said themselves that all endings are canon. And I agree because frankly, canon is anything that is in the game. To silksong, Embrace the void might be the preexisting ending. In the case of every other ending hollow knight provides, most damningly, Sealed Siblings, Silksong might not have happened. And that is still canon. Alternative routes exist, but just aren’t explored.
It is for certain that Silksong takes place after Embrace the Void (with the delicate flower) when completing the Sister of Void ending, but it could also happen after the Hollow knight ending. The infection will, (probably) at some point, take over hallownest once again, but hornet could still be kidnapped. The problems arise in Silksongs Sister of Void ending when following this up. Well, simply put, it just can’t happen if following the Hollow knight ending, because Ghost’s shade is not only stuck to their body, but also wasn’t become the Shade lord. So in this case, Hollow knight ending cannot predate Sister of Void. But to put restrictions on Silksongs endings based on your hollow knight endings would be kinda silly, so of course they didn’t do that. You just assume that it takes place after Embrace the void.
Why I believe in the alternative routes so much is because both Silksong and hollow knight have parallels in their endings. Either you take the “source of the plight” straight on without much thought, (GMS & HK), OR you think ahead and try to find the solution that actually fixes the problem. (Sister of Void & Embrace the Void)
Or, you just fuck around and find out (Sealed siblings & cursed)
Im just tired of people claiming “canon” to endings when no, it’s just exploring an alternative route. And how convenient is it that they explore the most interesting route which allows Hornet to do all these things. (Not convenient at all, it’s deliberate)
But hey thats just my view on things