My favorite weird Nightreign glitch is if you reach 0 hp and take a critical hit on an enemy you will still deal your damage, but when you leave the animation you'll die and be at 2 bars instead of 1 bc the game registers it as you dying a second time. It's only happened to me twice in my 1000 hours of playing bc of how tight the timing is
Indigenous peoples of the great plains should've never told white people about tornadoes. "I don't know man that shit never happened before you showed up"
This cage holds another attempt by the Weavers to construct a replacement for Silk, akin to Eva. The central shape contains a circle with six smaller round shapes, very similar to a Weaver's mask, and the oval encompassing it also has a line down the center similar to the Weavers' masks.
This being very obviously is thoroughly integrated with lifeblood/plasmium, a power we still know rather little about other than that it is very potent, possibly related to the Abyss and seemingly able to meld with the powers of other gods/creatures (the infected pustules in Hallownest, and the various creatures changed in the Wormways).
The strands twisting out from the central "mask" shape could be similar to Silk's hair or the wispy form of Eva, or even imply the creature was made using an octopus/squid-like creature as a component since this dlc is set by the sea. We see with Lace, Phantom, and even Eva that a being made purely of silk is not an entirely sustainable lifeform, so perhaps the Weavers began to use other methods to create life.
Also i have no real reason for this last part, but the lightning strike makes me think of Frankenstein so I think it'd be really cool if this being was made from pieces of Weavers. If you can't create your own god, why not make yourselves into one?
Phantom is possibly one the most intriguing characters introduced in Silksong, the mysterious sibling of Lace left to wither away in the Exhaust Organ. Their presence in canon is limited to shockingly little for the only other known child of Grand Mother Silk, but I find this to serve their character very well.
Phantom was likely Silk's first attempt at replacing the Weavers, at least successfully, but with the Weavers as Silk's only reference I suspect she made Phantom too similar to them. She thought taking away the power over silk was all she needed to prevent her creations from turning against her, but Phantom had a clear mind, they would come to recognize the tragedy in their existence as a being "spun to fade," which would lead to Lace being "spun mad" as stated in her Silk Heart text.
I believe this explains many things about Phantom. First and foremost: their name. While it could be the name Silk gave them, I find it more likely this is a name they chose themself, a title they were given after being stationed in the Exhaust Organ, or a title Hornet gives them for the purposes of her journal, simply because Silk has kept a theme with her other creations, the Weavers and Lace, in giving them sewing-related names. The Weavers do possess individual names, but it is unclear if Silk named them or they would later name themself. I personally believe the latter, as it fits with my thoughts on how Silk attempts to mold the identity of her creations.
The Weavers had masks, as they were formed from the masked pharlids, and Lace does not. Phantom, however, does don a mask. Masks we know to be representative of a bug's self, their purpose. Their identity made manifest. (See Silksong's Mask Maker saying, "To exist, to die, a face is needed. It is the essential thing.") Some bugs are born with them, others need them made by a Mask Maker, and some have no mask at all. Those without masks are typically either very rudimentary lifeforms (the flukes, the uomas/oomas, the Coral Tower fish) or are not bugs (many higher beings, Greyroot, the mushrooms), with a few odd exceptions across the games. Phantom's mask is only so noteworthy because they need to actively hold it on their face, they are choosing to wear this mask. They do not wear it when Hornet first approaches, and their mask remains on the ground after death. Even with their back turned, your eyes are drawn to their mask. Even when they die, their mask remains. It is my belief that Phantom obtained this mask through some means, either visiting the Mask Maker or taking it from a dead bug (explaining why the mask is so damaged), physically representing their pursuit of identity beyond what Silk wanted them to be. (Also yeah Phantom of the Opera reference but multiple things can be true.)
Finally, the much-contested gender topic. It is true that Hornet seems to default to they/them for bugs she does not know, and even sometimes bugs she does know (she refers to Styx as "they" to the couriers, but calls him "sir" when talking to him. Styx could just be living out his he/they dreams but we cannot know for certain.) Grand Mother Silk is a goddess, exclusively referred to by feminine titles. Her first creations, the Weavers, are an exclusively female species despite pharlids presumably having at least two sexes since they have continued to reproduce (I do not think a single-sex/asexually reproducing species is possible since the Weavers notably do require a sire for their children, resulting in all known Weaverspawn being only part Weaver.) Lace, too, is female. Plenty argue Phantom is also female and the they/them was just Hornet not knowing, but I like to think it is just another way to convey Phantom's total disconnect from all that Silk made them to be. They are not her daughter, for they will not be a woman at all. I think this may also be the reason for their design featuring a tailcoat-esque shape, a traditionally masculine garment, and the split between their grey and black coloring resembling a sleeveless top, a traditionally feminine style.
All this to say, Phantom's minimal presence centers the fact that the only way to know them is to see them. They fought to be who they are, and you will only know them as they want to be known. They will press their mask to their face until their final moment, refusing to be anything less than what they have chosen to be.
4 years ago I played Hollow Knight for the first time. Today, I beat Nightmare King Grimm for the first time. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my chest
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