ok whoops i ended up being a bit busy so i wasn’t able to write this immediately!
we all know that the pale king wasn’t a good father to the vessels because, well. mass infanticide to the point of having an entire pit full of your dead children’s corpses isn’t really a sign of good parenting. but what was he like to hornet?
it’s honestly really hard to tell what their relationship would’ve been like just because there’s not a lot we encounter in game that reveals that. so! i’m gonna do a bit of theory crafting here so take what i say with a grain of salt. this is my personal interpretation of the text in game.
first, hornet never actually talks about the pale king. despite guarding the wyrm corpse, she never mentions anything about her relationship with him. contrasting to this, after breaking herrah’s seal hornet is there, mourning her mother. and while i would like to point out this isn’t exactly a fair comparison because the wyrm corpse isn’t actually the pale king’s dead body i just wanted to put this observation here.
in fact, the main reason why we know hornet is the pale king’s child is because of a line from the white lady
but again, it emphasizes more on her relationship with herrah than anything. (the other clue is hornet’s dialogue in regards to the hollow knight, in referring to them as “siblings”. and since we know herrah is her mother it would just be process of elimination as to who their shared parent is)
also small side note, it looks like hornet doesn’t have that great of a relationship with white lady, or at least not a deep one, if how she refers to her as just “the creature” is anything to go by.
it’s honestly odd how hornet never mentions herself why hallownest is so important to her. she’s the princess of it! she’s the king’s daughter! and she’s spent all this time protecting it, and yet we don’t actually know why she’s doing it. she could leave, nothing is stopping her. we know that the weavers left hallownest and that they still cared about hornet if the weaversong, a charm that was most likely meant for her, is anything to go by. there was nothing that could’ve stopped her from leaving with them. who cares about this rotting kingdom anyway? we know who did, the pale king
the entire reason why the vessels were made was because he desperately wanted to stop his kingdom from falling into ruin. and we know his plan failed. we know hornet is at least a little knowledgeable about the vessels, the seals, the infection. she knows the hollow knight is her sibling, that her father is not above such dire sacrifices. she was raised with a mindset of being indebted. she felt indebted to her mother for being born. could you imagine how indebted she felt to her father too?
knowing this, it’s no wonder why despite all this time, she’s still trying to keep together the pieces of a kingdom long lost to infection and ruin. she’s trying to keep her father’s legacy alive still. to the point where she’s willing to essentially stand by while her mother fades away, gone for good, just for a chance that the kingdom could still be saved.
and this is a bit petty but i think it’s a pretty asshole move to have your child protect your kingdom then just peace out to the dream realm leaving her to fend for herself :/
to summarize: hornet’s relationship with her mother is much more emphasized than the one with her father, despite his kingdom being the one she’s protecting. hornet was raised to basically idolize self-sacrifice, her sibling being the hollow knight, the pale king “sacrificing” his child to be a vessel, her mother sacrificing herself so hornet could be born. this makes for an unhealthy mindset that hornet carries to this day.
