Transsex female Artist. Draws comics and maybe makes games one day. This Blog is mainly used for reblogging stuff. Also, I'm the creator of Driftertale and Charatale
Okay, so something that’s struck me as interesting, as someone who only just got into hollow knight and played it through (literally within the past month), is an odd fandom perception/reoccurring idea in fanon that Hornet like, thought the vessels were all unfeeling husks or otherwise believed in her father’s ideas prior the Knight proving her wrong late in the game. Sometimes up until the very end or post-game. But this seems almost counter to the canon I experienced. Hornet does not believe the Knight to be unfeeling or a hollow being. Beyond our very first encounter, she believes them to be a being with agency, choice, will and thought and treats them as such.
At your first fight with her, Hornet notes that you’ve been stalking her (“I’ve seen you, creeping through the undergrowth, stalking me.”). Given how in the lead up to this scene we’ve seen her on the edge of our screen several times, I assume this is to be taken as true. We’re following her and tracked her into this deadend path. She then says “I know what you are. I know what you’d try to do. I can’t allow it.”
(A quick aside, it’s quite interesting that Hornet is the only character it’s ever implied that the Knight follows after/seeks out without clear direction. Nosk is intentionally luring the Knight, and can be ignored. Hornet on the other hand, seems to be doing her own thing, and the Knight is following her.)
I was a bit confused by what Hornet was implying until I met Lost Kin/the broken vessel, but it seems now fairly obvious that Hornet has likely encountered infected former vessels (or Vessels that soon became infected) and believed us to be another one. Other vessels can be infected (The Hollow Knight themselves being a clear example), and Hornet likely had to deal with them. The Hunter notes encounters with Vessels. Dung Defender makes the exact same mistake that she did, thinking you a Husk and later recognizing you as living and thinking.
She ends that encounter early, and our next encounter is completely non-hostile. Hornet openly admits to having misjudged us. She’s by this point correctly guessed that we have memory loss (something that is profoundly interesting for her to be aware of) and that this memory loss is likely why we’re so far unaffected by the infection. (“You’ve seen beyond this kingdom’s bounds. Yours is resilience born of two voids.”). That was the cause of her early hostility, she thought you were there to try to worsen the infection, and/or to kill her. Once she realizes that isn’t your goal and that you aren’t infected, she flips to supporting you. In a very Hornet way, but still supporting you.
Past that first encounter, Hornet is one of very few characters that knows what we are, seems to know the entire truth of the situation, and still treats us as if we are a person with agency. Quite explicitly. Once she understands we’ve lost our memories, her biggest role is making sure that the Knight is fully aware of what happened. That we know what we’re even trying to do, what horror was inflicted on us and our siblings, and that despite all of that we still wish to move forward.
This is already interesting, because by Hornet’s own admission/belief, our memory loss is protecting us from the infection. There’s no reason we need our memories returned to complete our task, and not getting them back would seem more attuned to the goal of getting a pure vessel. But she insisted that we know and chose to go forward with that knowledge. Without so much as pressuring us to do so. (“If, knowing that truth, you’d still attempt a role in Hallownest’s perpetuation, seek the Grave in Ash and the mark it would grant to one like you.”)
She doesn’t confront us again or bother us in any way unless we explicitly seek her out with the goal of moving forward with the plan. Where we seek the mark that she is explicitly tasked/known to be guarding. Hornet asks for proof of our resolve to affirm that we are ready to face the truth. She claims she’d feel no sadness if we died, and then also explicitly saves our life 5 minutes later (It’s honestly pretty funny, Hornet actively claims she doesn’t care if we die. Is also the only character that explicitly saves our life at great personal risk to herself).
Hornet’s dialogue is very carefully worded so at every stage we are being given a choice. Even up to her suggesting/telling us that we could fight the infection rather than just replace the Hollow Knight. She’s careful to not phrase it as a command. I think this is best contrasted with the White Lady’s dialogue (who, notably, does actually explicitly tell us to contain the infection with no regard to our wellbeing or warning of what that entails).
Hornet, after we’ve gone into the Abyss and returned:
“A difficult journey you would face, but a choice it can create. Prolong our world’s stasis or face the heart of its infection. I’d urge you to take that harder path, but what end may come, the decision rests with you.”
(Note her use of ‘I’d urge you’ and not 'I urge you’. An interesting and explicit avoidance of a command or request. Rather telling you what her opinion is without making it in any way an order or request of her own. She also only says this after you have explicitly pursued the saving of the kingdom, and made it very clear what you want).
By contrast, the White Lady has no such caution (and, interestingly, only suggests replacement and not fighting the infection).
Within my roots, the weakening of the Vessel I plainly feel. Only two obvious outcomes there are from such a thing. The first is inevitable on current course, regression, all minds relinquished to that pernicious plague. The second I find preferable, and would seek your aid in its occurance, replacement. I implore you, usurp the Vessel. Its supposed strength was ill-judged. It was tarnished by an idea instilled. But you. You are free of such blemishes. You could contain that thing inside.
The White Lady specifically requests that you replace the Vessel, despite explicitly noting that she does not know your intent or purpose in finding her (“Oh! One arrives. Far it walks to find me. Did it seek my aid? Or did the path carry it by chance to so pertinant a place?”). She asks for your sacrifice, and her later dialogue assumes you’ve agreed. Pushing you to hurry as soon as you can. Without knowing if it’s even something that you want to do. Completely unlike Hornet who instead merely offers you a path, and demands proof that you actually desire to follow it.
(My final aside, it’s fascinating to me that Hornet is the only character I can find that explicitly knows that the Vessel can unite the void to fight the infection, and says as much plainly. Dreamnailing her shows she’s fully aware of the fact you need to unite the void too. How the fuck did she learn any of this. The White Lady seems unaware that this an option as she only asks you to take over, and she was literally involved in the OG Plan. Meanwhile Hornet who could’ve only learned of this after the fact is like 'yeah you could murder that thing if you just unite the void within yourself by heading down into the abyss that I know the exact contents of despite it having explicitly been sealed during my lifetime’. Girl how did you figure that out.)
Hornet never once pushes you to hurry in your task, or pushes you towards anything but a very mild push towards fighting the infection. Even that is not a request on her part, but framed as a suggestion with explicit acknowledgement that it is your own choice. She says it only once, and after that only ever says you have a choice and accepts whatever it is you choose. She risks her own life to ensure that you have that choice (Again, says she won’t risk her life for you. Does so literally the moment she has the chance).
Quite literally the only thing Hornet actually asks of you is a moment alone to mourn her mother. Otherwise, she’s careful in her wording to allow the Knight agency and not seek to pressure them into any choice. Hornet demands commitment once a choice is made, but never that they make the choice she wants. She treats the Knight with that understanding of agency after their first encounter. Further, she seems fully aware that the Knight isn’t an empty vessel, nor does she push them to become one at any point. Quite the opposite, Hornet pushes them to learn the truth and accept it. Hornet KNOWS actively that her father was incorrect in what he searched for in a Vessel, and pushes them to be the opposite.
To boil it down quite simply, the Pale King demands
No Will To Break. No Mind To Think. No voice to cry suffering.
Hornet, on the other hand, demands the opposite.
You could do it, if you had the will. But could you raise your nail once knowing its tragic conception? And knowing yourself?… Ghost of Hallownest, you possess the strength to enact an end of your choosing. Would you supplant our birth-cursed sibling, or would you transcend it?
She demands that the Knight have Will, she demands it Think and Know, and she demands that it demonstrate a Voice by choosing. Hornet quite clearly does not believe in her father’s teachings. She does not believe the Vessel empty or unthinking or unfeeling. Hornet demands that it not be if it wishes to claim the brand she guards. If it wishes for her aid in battle.
The Pale King’s chosen Vessel is doomed to fail. Hornet’s chosen Vessel has a chance to succeed. BECAUSE she made the choice to treat them as a person, to offer them choice, to demand that they want, that they think that they are. And, in the end, because she made the choice to put her own life on the line to aid them. She risks her life, knowingly so, to provide the Knight a choice. A Chance. And, at least when I’m not getting my ass kicked by the Radiance’s fucking spear wall spike floor bullshit, it pays off.
“i unfollow if our media interests no longer align” I still follow moots haven’t spoken to in years and have learned the entire story of deltarune, mouthwashing, that one ninjago lego show, continuations of media I havent been into since 2018 and many others. I don’t need a summary of something I just need Mutual to be insane about it on my dash
these are my mutuals I call them ‘advertisement’ and 'propaganda’ and 'newspaper’ and their job is to flood my dash with posts that have no root in my current interests. for enrichment
ALT
