The Pale King's Motivations
I keep thinking back to the Hunter's journal entries on the Pale King's constructs from the OG Hollow Knight
The Hunter has probably never been inside the White Palace, so in-universe this is probably a result of Ghost returning to him to discuss the constructs in the palace after they encountered them, maybe showing him scetches & notes of their own. (I like the idea that they return to him periodically to show off their latest 'catches' & receive mentor-ly advice)
Now I'm a proponent of the interpretation that the 1st half of the entries is the protag, & they're just noting the construct's makeup & the weaknesses. At most, they seem a bit impressed by the Kingsmould's martial capabilities. Pretty much the usual style.
At this point, the protagonist has probably put together that he's their father or at least their creator (judging by the various feelings expressed through the throne room sequence, & how you'd usually have the Kingsbrand by this point), but still doesn't know more about him than one would about a perfect stranger or distant historical figure.
The Hunter is, as usual, disdainful of the 'civilized' bugs of Hallownest (which comes through in his thoughts of the royal retainers - as he sees it they're basically weaklings for following another, similar to how he views the bees as 'slaves'), but with regards to the King himself, he's more curious & coming at it from an 'us mere mortals cannot comprehend' angle (similar to his commentary on the Radiance)
The constructs prompt him to speculate about what the King's motivations for building his kingdom could have been - & some of the options he brings up for how he could've viewed his creations are as toys, companions or children.
You don't give up your own children to save mere toys, but neither does such an act suggest a strong parental drive. (Plus we've since gotten the Monarch of Pharloom as an example of a creator god who wanted kids and/or toys.)
So it would seem that "companions" was the answer, which certainly also fits with how he reshaped himself to more easily interact with them. (whereas other creator gods made their creations more like themselves/ in their own image - this is even seen with his statues & how the traditional thing was for them all to be subtly different, so that it's as much a monument of the scuptor's individuality/art style/vision as merely a depiction of the King; His whole thing was that he supposedly gave ppl individual thought as opposed to the hive mind of the Radiance)
I've always found something rather compelling on how he's depicted in the full version of the opener poem as trying to grant all his followers' wishes but never being done at it because there was always something more to improve or something more they wanted.
Granting ppl in the caverns containing Hallownest long lives may also have been the result of of wanting to keep them with him a little longer (though he seems to have stopped short of imposing unnatural distortions, we still see elderly ppl like Seer & the Old Stag - whatever 'stasis' came with the seals may have veered into that a bit, Monomon was certainly glad to be relieved of her post by the end. He didn't want anything to do with Soul Master's shit tho.)
So many of his subjects may be seeing him as this incomprehensible fathomless being, but underneath is a lonely, clumsy creature who thought they'd maybe tolerate him if he used his fancy powers to give them nice shit.
He was still overall viewed as reclusive, mysterious & aloof, so mixing with his subjects probably didn't come to him all that naturally, but he still tried. (from how the White Lady talk about the 5 knights for example it seems they were personal friends with the royal pair, or at least had a warm colleague relationship)
Maybe he showed his care for them more indirectly through his buildings & inventions. (as much as that just something he seems to have liked doing for its own sake - its conceivable that the Kingdom was kinda like a crafts project to him at least at the beginning)
Judging by the lore tablets in King's pass he viewed existence as a Higher Being as being at least partially a positive thing, since it lets him do things others cannot, like having talents he can put to great uses, but he wouldn't have worked as closely with Monomon as he did if he were dismissive of the skills of mortals. The research notes in the archive suggest she was intimately involved in coming up with the theory behind the vessels.
There's that bit of cut dialogue for Lurien where he says something like, "well the King appears like a regular bug so I will take him so, but I can tell he's something far grander..."
For all that he's taking the role of a leader, he does want to be seen as one of them... but he also kinda glows so much he's hard to look at for too long, that's just not gonna go unnoticed. So even his most trusted Liutennant is like "I sometimes cant tell at all what hes thinking"
As an interesting kind of symmetry, Lurien did, of course, have his own loyal, admiring subordinates one layer down.
It's also possible that he wanted to give himself some sort of purpose, with how duty/obligation oriented he seems to have been. (this is also a good candidate for what his previous existence as a giant creature burrowing through an empty wasteland would have been 'missing')
One trait all 3 of his children (that we get greater detail on) seem to have in common is that they have some drive to make themselves useful and/ or have a purpose - which of course, alas interacted adversely with the various ways he couldn't quite do right by each of them.
He's effectively inflicted the same fate he wanted to get away from on Ghost (who ends up running into the very featureless wasteland their father came from, thinking they're not wanted as a 'discarded failure'), meanwhile THK/PV seems to have tried very hard to live up to the role they've been given but it's an unwinnable impossible mission that will require them to endure untold suffering, & then we have Hornet who wanted to make herself useful even as a kid chasing away the mites from the Distant Village's grannary but effectively existed in the shadow of mopping up his failures.
& when you get her opinion on his constructs... well. She's not awed or impressed by them at all, after all he's not her god, but her father. She actually knew him in mundane settings. Just like she knows exactly how the constructs work, she can point out details of how they were built, even the flaws in them. She knows the Wingmoulds were the clumsy first attempts.
Far from being awed or mystified, she remembers him as sort of clumsy, impotent ("fallen domain") and foolish [but with a "just like me" very loudly implied] - like she can't separate her feelings about the construct from their maker, or her feelings about her father from those about herself. (at least, in the aftermath of her own Grand Mistake)
She, too is a sort of aloof person who often feels a distance between herself and the 'regular' people she wants to be with, but finds it important to makes an effort even though it doesn't come naturally, though it seems she let herself get quite distant from those she was supposed to protect during her time as Hallownest's guardian.
Also very much a natural leader type (probably more so than him - on account of also getting her mother's "strong", "fierce" disposition - he wasn't that tough, like, he crumbled in defeat in the end. We find his remains in a sad little heap.) but is uncomfortable with any kinda leadership position because of the expectations that go with it, that she's been smothered in from the start.
some of which is due to his actual failures that are absolutely his fault, & some of which is the other Weavers kinda taking out their mommy issues on Hornet. (which is not his fault at all) - Herrah was of course over there trying her best to do this (bless her.), but the folks behind her were shouting very loud & eventually she had to leave to deal with the Radiance problem. The stupid plan was probably supposed to save Hornet most of all, like it would make all the sacrifices worth it when at least she gets to live in peace - but it was not to be. He miscalculated.
There's an interesting dynamic where in a way they have similar ideals and struggles... but also some resentment because, as she sees it, she has that strugle because of him, or because of being connected to him. He'd be the reason why she feels at a distance from others - if it weren't for him she could at least have fit in with the other Weavers.
Other wyrms aren't really around & were considered near-extinct mythical beasts even at the time he first arrived in Hallownest. & then Hornet proceeded to outlive most of the Weavers too. They can't even commiserate cause he got himself killed (with the specifics ambiguous, but most likely self-inflicted somehow) though he was supposed to be the immortal one. Now Hornet is extinct mythical beast on both sides!
She'd actually would have the wilder pedigree compared to her half-siblings if it werent for the void thing, seeing as Roots still seem to be around in some capacity.
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