can opener smoothdream

doodles | txt i can do what i want forever :)

[to-fu]

pinned post!

mari × 30 × she/they × italy

hiii welcome 2 my life. i freelance by coloring comics for another artist, and do online art commissions. and i never ever shut up about fictional evil scientists who would kill me on sight.

other stuff:

i have a more detailed about page

my art blog is wi-fu, which is also where i follow from :)

i tag pretty consistently. personal posts; doodles 

small games i worked on (on itch.io)

[echotunes]

(to the tone of creep by radiohead) but i'm asleep. on mypillow

[daveedmee]

explosion at health potion factory 0 dead 0 injured

[explicitlyrics]

[dailycatsblog]

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Silksong Progress #12: Hornet, Best Protagonist 2025

I doubt there's much I can say that hasn't already been said to the death by actual critics about the way Hornet is written in Silksong. But all the praise is worth repeating: the way the game characterizes her is so damn good.

Transitioning a Metroidvania series from a silent, literal blank void of a protagonist[*] to one that is both a voiced and defined character is a lot harder to pull off than it seems (still glaring at you, Metroid: Other M!). But Team Cherry not only succeeded with Hornet, they made it look easy. The finer notes of her characterization aren't always shoved in your face - as feels right and proper for the obtuse, Soulslike-style storytelling of this series. But observant players will find those nuances in everything from her many specialized animations to her amusingly opinionated Hunter's Journal.

And when Hornet does get a Big Dramatic Moment, she is an intriguing and multifaceted enough character that any remotely invested player will immediately sit up and take notice.

(Also her dialog just goes so hard.)

With such a compelling protagonist, it makes the rest of Silksong's setting and characters shine all the brighter as well. Hallownest was a wondrous and beautiful ruin to explore (and which I'm now very looking forward to visiting myself after I finish up my thoughts on Silksong!), but Pharloom as a setting lives and breathes. Its towns and NPCs grow and change alongside Hornet's own development, helping the player become invested in this world in parallel to her arc, not in place of it.

Indeed, one curious and somewhat unique aspect of Hornet's character in Silksong is the gap between her knowledge and that of the player. Hornet very sparingly voices her own thoughts, and the player is simply trusted to keep up with her evolving motivations. In many cases, Hornet has a far better understanding of what is happening in a scene than the average person behind the controller will. Her conversations with Songclave's Caretaker are particularly full of this - one of their exchanges is practically a whole "I-know-that-you-know-that-I-know" sequence where a player uninterested in the lore may be completely in the dark as to what either side is talking about!

And for Hornet, this works beautifully. Allowing her to keep her motivations and knowledge close to her chest both ensures that Hornet's thoughts never become cloying or overbearing for the player while also furthering her characterization as a confident, intelligent, and experienced warrior and craftswoman.

(Side note on the craftswoman thing: it's such a tiny detail, but I adore how Hornet's Tools are a mixture of items she buys from other crafters, ones she commissions from said crafters to her own specifications, and ones she assembles out in the world herself. It does so much to silently yet powerfully convey Hornet's mastery that when you find a broken Weaver artifact, Hornet herself is one of the three characters in all of Pharloom with the skill to repair it!)

…But for a different character, would that knowledge gap work as well? That, I'm less certain about. (Though fellow indie darling Deltarune has an even more fascinating and aggressive gap between player and avatar, so it's hardly unheard of.)

Regardless, I think it's another testament to Team Cherry's skill that Silksong pulls off a protagonist that is not only boldly and unapologetically her own character but also such an understated and enticing enigma. She is not a player self-insert, doubly so, and Silksong soars all the higher because of it.

It also does make me wonder: given how influential the original Hollow Knight was on other games (especially Metroidvanias), what will Silksong's influence be? What of it will lesser games try to imitate, only to fall on their faces?

I wouldn't be surprised if we see other Soulslikes and Metroidvanias attempt more ambitious storytelling and more richly characterized protagonists - and I am so very here for that! Even if other games don't quite match Silksong's incredible heights with Hornet, reaching for that lofty moon means even a miss may result in another stellar protagonist.

[gutsandeverythingg]

Who are you and why do i follow you

do i really have to do this every time. you are a mindless ghoul. i own you. you dig my endless pit. BACK TO WORK

[spiribia]

i think of this image every time i decide against inaction and then end up regretting it anyway

[pinnipurr]

Ants are always like oh shiit you have a thing? You left your Thing there i've always wanted that. And can all my friends come also

[pkmange]

cunty kitsune OC commission for a private!

[caezavio]

Is that you, dear sibling?

pale realm

Part 1

Part 2

[ladyofthewasps]

hello, its been a long while but my lacenet fic is finished at last. Give it a look if you are interested :)

[planetarywaltz]

gourmand rainworld meets large flea silksong. splendid beasts

[ntrider]

noncon friendship

[sonyvegas9-deactivated20241118]

Coworkers

[sewer-sermon]

tfw you visibly base your entire identity around One Specific Character Or Thing so that whenever it gets brought up (or left out) of a conversation you look like this pointing it out

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

baby lace and baby phantom playing pretend together and they wanna play silence the citadel but neither of them can make up their mind who gets to be the white knight and who gets to be the slaughtered pilgrim and they get into a really heated debate about it

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

important to note that they both want to be the slaughtered pilgrim and 'die' dramatically on the other's pin. neither of them want to be the white knight that's boring they're ALWAYS the white knight

[planetarywaltz]

various sketches inspired by or directly referencing Tove Jansson's illustrations