*Silksong Spoilers* on Hornet, Lace, and age
I have seen a lot of muttering about if shipping these characters is appropriate, namely the confusion around Hornet calling Lace “child”.
The short version: yeah it’s probably fine.
The long version: Team Cherry inserted that change in dialogue as part of an arc that tells us several things about Hornet’s character.
First thing: Hornet is OLD. She is older than most NPCs in either of the games. She has outlived several lovers. And yet she is still easily mistaken to be a “child” herself, probably having the appearance of an elder teen/young adult. Hornet gives every sign of being isolated by her own longevity as well as the various tragedies surrounding her.
Second thing: Hornet has a rather proud and imperious manner to her. She does not like being patronized to. Pharloom is largely preoccupied with Hornet’s maternal/Weaver heritage, but Lace does not seem aware that Hornet is also a half-wyrm demigod. Thus the two characters have an ego clash wherein they both perceive the other as naive and in over her head (and they are both simultaneously right and wrong!).
Third (most interesting imo) thing: Hornet realizes that Lace is a homunculus from the start, and this reminds her of her siblings. (I also think “pale one”, an epithet frequently given to Ghost/the Knight in game one, is a deliberate emphasis on this). Hornet pities Lace, because she knows that a lifeform made to serve another’s purpose can only have a very limited scope of the world. Hornet is thinking of Ghost and the Hollow Knight when she acknowledges Lace’s personhood, but laments that Lace is still the pawn of a higher being.
In closure, if I had to guess, both Hornet and Lace physically appear the buggy equivalent of 19-21 (despite both being functionally immortal for different reasons). Hornet calling Lace “child” isn’t just smack talk, but more a statement on Hornet’s feelings re:the vessel experiments. A sentiment of “you are Alive, but [like my siblings] you never really got to live”; a parallel that feels especially clear in the Sister of the Void ending.
Ship discourse aside, we get a compelling window into Hornet’s inner world— she was and still is deeply emotionally affected by her siblings’ fates, and feels both grief and anger over how they were wronged. And if LaceNet is read romantically, the aforementioned SotV ending fully realizes Hornet’s arc: closure with her family, and the end of her isolation via a partner that matches her lifespan.
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