The idea that the Pale King ran away never sat right with me. In the context of a character who basically sacrificed everything for his kingdom, the line "No cost too great" doesn't hold the same weight if the end of their story was them abandoning everything to run for their life (as if that was his main concern all that time). Add to this the way that the While Lady doesn't seem to harbor any ill will towards the Pale King, even taking on a wistful tone when speaking about them despite (supposedly) being abandoned by them, and the fact that he would have ran away from a Dream God to hide In a Dream (I get hubris but come on, he's a monster not an idiot). It always felt like there was something more going on, & I think I have a plausible answer:
The Pale King didn't run away, he tried to turn himself into a Vessel to seal the Radiance in the White Palace. As a digression: I'll try to not go in much more depth here with the idea as this is already a long post (though I don't see a size limit, but I apologize if this is too long), I no longer have my evidence organized so this is off my memory, & this is better suited for an independent post, but I saw one of your mods is a Pale King fan & I had a little bit of time so I figured why not; this is a lovely blog y'all've made btw.
There's a theory that the jelly fish we find in Fog Canyon are the 1st attempt at creating a vessel-like creature (artificially created with minimal mind to store the Infection), so if that's the case, then it shows that there were multiple attempts at containing the Radiance, & that there was a iterative process to the attempts. "So artificially created bugs with no mind didn't work, what's next?" "The reanimated corpse of my demigod child filled with void almost worked, what's next?" "Wait, they harvested the souls of thousands of innocent bugs to improve their focus, I told them NOT to do that! AnD iT dIdN't EvEn WoRk? WHAT'S NEXT?"
Wouldn't the next logical step here to make a fully divine vessel? The last attempt with a demigod almost worked, so perhaps a true god will work; instead of a Hollow Knight, make a Hollow King. After all, as far as they can tell, the Infection is the Radiance's revenge for what the Pale King did to them, so even if this attempt fails to contain her, maybe seeing his corpse & throne sealed away will be enough to quell her rage & spare the kingdom?
That's why we find him in a dream, to lure the Radiance to him! That's why it's so difficult & dangerous to get to him, to protect the (new) vessel! That's why no one else is with him, so no one else suffers his fate! That's why only the Kingsmolds within his reach are broken, he destroyed them himself to lay the trap! That's why the White Lady has no ill will towards him, he died sacrificing himself trying to save them all (which in turn lines up with the rest of his story; his kingdom's safety before all)! That's why his dream nail dialogue is what it is, his final thought before being hollowed out & paying the ultimate price, "No cost to great".
There's still several problems with this theory, like for instance, why didn't it work? (I've got a litany of things to say about a certain migraine inducing Kingsmold and the servants around a certain fountain that once was my bank). But this is how I like to interpret the Pale King's fate & I haven't seen anyone else take this approach so I figured I'd share the skeleton of the idea with y'all. Thanks for reading & hosting this blog, have a good one!
HI!!!! IM THE PALE KING LOVER!!!!!!! I LOVE HIM SM!!!!
i do like this take on his character! It does fit him well imo, but i don’t think thats what happened in canon…. could do good as a au tho… would love to see that
— mod moth
I'm just rebloging it so I can find it easier, if someone sees this I eventually plan to properly explore this when I'm able; it may just be a while. Carry on.