Vessel #385 @justonevessel - Tumblr Blog

Full Silksong Rant: Intro (pt1)

As many people know: Silksong is finally here.

It’s been a long wait. I think the only other franchise I follow with the a longer gap than this was Kingdom Hearts, but that’s a completely different ballgame.

I think, as of right now, Hollow Knight: Silksong is my favorite game. I think that it did basically everything that I wanted as a sequel to my now second favorite game, Hollow Knight. I think that it also fulfilled the potential of a seven year development time and I was served what I expected of Team Cherry. Silksong is beautifully built on the shoulders of Hollow Knight in ways that many other games struggle and fail. We all have the Sequel That Was Worse, or the Sequel That Was Just Fine, or the worst, I think: the Sequel No One Needed.

As someone who was burned by the gorgeous, incredible, fun, and wonderful sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, I admit I was a little worried about Silksong. I was sure that I would love it but I was worried that, like Wisps, there would be The One Thing that made it and Hollow Knight unplayable. Because yes, Wisps burned me so bad I haven’t been able to go back and play Ori and the Blind Forest either. The whole series, the reason I love Metroidvanias, is currently in a weird emotional brain vault and I don’t know if that door will ever open. It sounds cheesy, but anyone who has felt betrayed by a piece of media understands the feeling of a sequel souring the entire batch.

In many ways, Hollow Knight didn’t need more. Its multiple endings allowed players to take what catharsis they preferred — and I’ve personally wrote a whole fix-it fic based off the Godhome Ending (-shameless plug-). Hornet was always a fascinating character, a character that players wanted more about. Now we have that. And it’s everything I could have ever wanted. Even its flaws. So yeah, this will likely be a pretty biased write up/essay/long-form rant whatever the fuck this will be. Putting it out there right away: this is coming from a place of love.

I’m going to start from the beginning and run all the way through. Spoilers abound. I recommend that if you want to play Silksong, do so blind. If you haven’t played Hollow Knight, please do so. Get it on PC so you can mod the difficulty if you’re intimidated. There ain’t nothing wrong with turning on invincibility. It’s a single player game. I just think you should experience it, however that means.

This will be created over multiple days and sessions. I’ll be doing area write ups as I progress through a fresh save with the intention of reaching 100% and completing the True Ending.

I hope anyone that reads this has a good time with my metaphorical shaking the game around in my mouth like a feral dog. But this is as much for me as it is for passersby.

For full transparency because I’m not a God Gamer, my playthrough is a modded one. I have the following mods to tune Silksong to my skill and enjoyment level.

1) Compass always on 2) Magnetite Brooch always on 3) No Double Damage 4) Rosaries Never Permanently Lost (a second cocoon is added to the first instead of replacing it) 5) Easy Deliveries (removes the restrictions and timers) 6) Skip Flea Minigames (I will talk about this in the respective place) 7) Simple Cheats (the only cheat active will be Unlimited Silk)

If a mod is released that will allow for the skipping of the Sprintmaster Wish, I will download it in a heartbeat. I’m not a fan of races in games that aren’t racing games.

For your convenience: Pt2: Hornet Pt3: Moss Grotto Pt4: Bone Bottom Pt5: The Marrow Pt6: Deep Docks Pt7: Far Fields

#hollow knight silksong #silksong #post #Full Silksong Rant JOV #I'm losing my mind

greentrickster

"The Pale King made a super functional economy" this, "the Pale King created a decent society" that, listen, you want impressive, the Pale King made a highly functional public transport system that still runs in the modern day.

Think about that for half a minute!

kendrixtermina

he may have promised a bit more than he could deliver with the eternity thing, but dear god he tried

greentrickster

Indeed! Heck, even Hallownest itself is still standing! Not standing as in ancient ruins or musty old houses, standing as in, 'it has been raining the whole time, it's full of zombies, it's being actively looted by anyone crazy enough to try and inhabit it, and all the elevators still work.'

Listen, the people may not have lasted, but in terms of architecture, machinery, the sewage system, and public transport, the city itself seems to be making a pretty danged good stab at it!

greatfirebarbarian

And he didn't even need a perpetually renewed underclass of horrifingly brainwashed and oppressed workers to do it.

abx5-fandom-repertuare

The waterways are robust enough that after the bug equivalent of centuries with no maintenance and actively being infected by flukes it never even bothered the adjacent ecosystems, unlike other sewer systems I can think of

kendrixtermina

The trash disposal of the respective capitals (& who guards them) really tells you everything you need to know about the difference between those two

greatfirebarbarian

Grand Mother Silk: "Why would I care about such petty matters?"

The Pale King: "Wonderful. An opportunity to design another Public Works project."

senblades

Why do you stay?

asp1diske-art

Learning Loss

(script under cut)

bellflowermini

lets get magical in this ruined chapel

#WOAG #THESE ARE SO FUCKING COOL

caezavio

pitchblackespresso

His name was Pilby

devilcatdarling

The curse of being alive

hornetposting

sleeping beauty

goobbugg

uaeuue them

goobbugg

i am not immune to hetslop

sherbet-powder

old art i found

purripocat

Some traditional doodles of cloakless Hornet because i don't want to do my assignments

mebis-silksong-corner

Hey wait a minute

this is the dialogue given by every Weaver Burial Spire except First Sinner

Daughter of a distant land... We who remained have waited long... Bind our strength to yours... Reclaim the future of our haunted kingdom...

And this is the dialogue given by First Sinner

Half-spawn of a distant land… Within this cage I have waited… Let my strength be bound to yours… Reclaim the future of our accursed kingdom…

Noticed that?

Bind our strength to yours...

Let my strength be bound to yours…

How curious...you could argue all but FS are talking of their collective as in all enshrined Weavers, but isn't it curious how there's so little of these spires in the first place?

You could maybe argue they all left through Cindril, but that strikes me as a smaller group rather than literally all but like 7 Weavers

And we also know Weavenests contained multiple Weavers working together

And finally, there's the tip of the burial spires

(Fun fact, i was the one to bring this trivia up to the wiki)

that clearly looks like some kind of machine, and in Weaver's Den is used to hold silk, likely to manipulate it in some way, and doesn't it look...like a syphon? The whole spire almost looks like a needle of the injector / extracting kind

And these Weavers were expecting, maybe even counting, on the awaited weaverspawn of silken strength to be able to bind them

What if multiple Weavers consented to be syphoned out of their silk to be bound into a single Weaver, likely those in some sort of high position like some sort of nest leader, before they were mummified, both to better preserve all that strength in a single place and to try and prolong that power for longer (these spires are very similar to Eva's chamber, which i do think is evidence of its "silk preserving" function)

Most sprites for the burial spires are named "Weaver shrine" in the game's files. Eva's sprites also have this name.

In a way this makes every burial spire akin to the heart of a chapel, where the souls and memories of like-minded individuals pool into a well to eventually form a crest

This can be assumed of every chapel, but it is the most obvious with the chapels of the witch (as the exception that proves the rule) (the memories are subsumed to power and grow the root, rather than accumulated), the shaman, and the architect

(What makes Hornet unique isn't just being able to bind, but the fact that she has the malleability to do so with minds that are so different from hers)

So every burial spire contains the body and silk of a notorious Weaver, yes, but also the silk of possibly a nest worth of subordinate Weavers

Other than First Sinner, who is built different i guess (maybe she was enshrined while still young, so to speak, or maybe she just compensates with her rage)