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.