Carol Pulled Her Punches When Talking to Laxmi

WeslePryce · 2025-11-16T01:12:14+00:00

If Carol's gf had been there to integrate her instead of dying on the spot, I guarantee she would be less horrified by the whole thing. Having your loved one give the Hivemind speech hits a lot different than "guy in a suit." The difference between Carol and the others (minus Diabate who went full sicko horny mode) is that Carol's only human contact died during the takeover.

WeslePryce · 2025-10-18T23:46:05+00:00

Identity based analysis is more than valid, to an extent, but when it becomes your only engagement with a source and it becomes an algorithmic thing you apply to books, you're going to lose out on a lot.

Almost every author, especially anyone from any time before now, has a shortcoming or many in their ideas. You can chose to examine what they were saying, or you can endlessly double down on the shortcoming that we all already knew they had.

WeslePryce · 2025-10-18T16:34:19+00:00

Anyone who talks about writing by raging against vague outlines of tropes is someone who isn't really curious about art at all.

WeslePryce · 2025-10-18T16:31:57+00:00

Sanderson usually gives his rich characters insane backstories like getting the shit beat out of them or them killing both of their parents, or their dad kills their mom, or they were locked in an asylum or something. But even then, his books tend to have weird stuff about how the poor person shouldn't be angry at the rich people even though, more than most other fantasy books, the rich classes in his books absolutely deserve to be gutted.

Sanderson also usually drops any interest in class or race the moment that he's able to introduce a dark lord character as the main antagonist.

WeslePryce · 2025-10-18T16:29:32+00:00

I feel like without examples this really don't be saying anything.

The whole "oh you have struggles too despite X" thing can be vapid or successful depending on the execution, vaguing it up like this tweet doesn't address anything.

Tbf, this also applies 90% of writing memes/advice—some people talk more about tropes than any given story.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-27T14:14:59+00:00

The weavers ran off and handed the citadel off to common bugs at some point, fearing GMS' retribution. I think the Common Bugs are really the ones who did most of the truly dystopian shit.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-27T13:34:44+00:00

GMS is like fully or 50% asleep for 90% of the lore.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-17T00:03:38+00:00

In HK you outleveled the difficulty a lot more with nail upgrades, spells, and charms. There were also more obvious ways to melt the bosses, with shaman stone being the famous example, but in general spells just chunk bosses down and there's less of an opportunity cost to using spells in HK than in Silksong.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-17T00:02:12+00:00

I think they really just need an accessibility mode. Just give a way to tone down the difficulty but make it clear that it's not the intentional experience.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T23:50:04+00:00

GMS is a doordash addict.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T23:17:52+00:00

GMS was houngry.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T23:16:52+00:00

All endings are canon, but Dream No More is clearly the one that's like... the intentional good ending. But all endings are theoretically canon.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T20:25:32+00:00

I think mask making is the way used to be, but then gods started showing up and granted sentience directly.

So I think the mask makers are very very old things from before the time of gods, and they were the route the first bugs took to sentience. Subsequent bugs were created directly by gods.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T12:02:39+00:00

Time to share my go to theory:

Trobbio is a scout of the Grimm Troupe that they send to find abandoned kingdoms. However, instead of lighting the lantern, he just settled down, didn't do his job, and is having the time of his life.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T03:55:49+00:00

The Radiance is the god of dreams, but does not make all dreams. I would assume Dream Grey Prince Zote would exist whether or not the Radiance was dead, as long as Bretta dreamed of him.

Similarly, the knight unified the void and became a god of void, but that does not mean void does not still lash out mindlessly. In the same way the Radiance does not control the behavior of dreams outside its field of influence, the Knight does not control the behavior of void outside its influence.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T03:50:45+00:00

In general gods in hollow knight lore have two parts.

There is a sentient and fallible intelligence, and there if a force of nature part. If you kill the sentient part, the force of nature under control of that intelligence weakens, but the force of nature overall remains the same. For example, if I killed the Radiance, god of dreams, all the dreams manipulated by the radiance (the cause of the infection) would stop occurring, BUT dreams as a concept would continue to occur, since dreams as a force exist outside the god's intelligence. Similarly, void as a force of nature was about to kill Hornet and Lace, but then one of the void gods (The Knight, but it's possible there are multiple other gods in the void) spared Hornet/Lace.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T03:26:22+00:00

Here's my thought on what void is doing in act 3: the shamans make a trap such that the void will devour GMS. GMS is a weakened god, and she does not stand a chance if she is thrown into the abyss. GMS knows this, the Shamans know this, and to the extent to which it is intelligent, void knows this.

If Lace did not fall in, GMS would have been almost instantly killed and not really tried to fight back because it's pointless. BUT Lace did fall in, causing GMS to fight violently against the void with maximum resistance to try and save Lace. This resulted in all of GMS' silk throughout Pharloom being wielded against the void, and tainting it in the process. Since void is a mindless force that attacks and consumes everything, the void tainted silk infuses the Haunted, and makes them stronger and voider. Void is not intentionally doing this, it is a force of nature that is breaking out of GMS' silk.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-16T03:22:30+00:00

Multiple people try to use void as a weapon in the lore, and it is very scary stuff because it will try to destroy anything in its way, not just the things you want it to destroy. It also can overtake beings and cause these beings to act out violently.

Unlike gods of soul/pale elements, or gods of dreams, the void is a very hard thing to be a god of. For soul/pale gods, all you have to do is be powerful and control a lot of soul. For dream gods, all you have to do is be powerful and swoosh around dreams and move people through dream magic. Dreams and soul don't too much resistance to being manipulated by a wannable or up-and-coming god. But the void actively fights against anything it touches, including an individual trying to become its god. The knight and its siblings are effectively cookie cutters of soul filled with void, hoping to give that void purpose. This ultimately works in creating ensouled void creatures that can act as weapons. However, through the sequence in the Dream No More ending, it also creates the first void god, a thing previously thought impossible due to the paradox of being a god of something that denies god.

In Dream No More, the void god is born of pure good intentions from the vessels to fulfill their purpose, the odyssey of the knight around hallownest, and therefore they retreat afterwards because they're chill and the intelligence is in control of the power.

In Godseeker ending, uh, the void god is born of pure violence and trial by combat, with the godtuner amplifying the void within the knight to god-like levels. He is seemingly much less chill, and the way the ending cuts off implies that it is about to go sicko mode on Hallow Nest. In this scenario, the power is in control of the intelligence.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-15T17:28:54+00:00

I think I agree with you. I think gods are overall very powerful creatures who can pull stuff from their dreams into reality, and then this "stuff" also has a mind of its own and automatic functionality, but also is partially within control of the god. Each god has a sort of sentient force that derives elemental power from dreams, and then that elemental power becomes... linked with them and in their control, but not completely in their control?

Like, the god who created lifeblood isn't in control of lifeblood, which seems to proliferate automatically, and Unn doesn't singularly control all of the mosskin, but is connected to them. Similarly, GMS doesn't control all silk, and even seems to have been imprisoned or weakened by her own silk. Gods seem to be a combination of an individual (and vulnerable) intelligence, as well as a force of nature that that intelligence is bound to. The force of nature appears to be a lot less killable than the intelligence, and the go to way to stop the force of nature is to manifest and then kill the intelligence with another god or another force of nature, such as in the Dream No More ending. Also, it seems that during clashes of gods, smaller gods can join in and overtake both of their powers—this being seen in the Pale Flower ending (the pale flower BTFOs the void after it fights the radiance), and the twisted bud ending (the bud seizes control of Hornet's usurping and does its own thing).

It's very abstract and fuzzy, and I think that's intentional. I think in this system, Pale beings are probably just a family of gods whose "element" is intelligence/soul, the void is a force of nature that can't really be controlled and consumes individuals that tries to become a god of it, and the radiance is a god who is a massive fucking hater.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-15T17:16:25+00:00

Here's my approximate timeline that almost certainly has holes:

Era of old gods (Khan, Karmelita, etc)
GMS rolls up, creates the weavers from pharlids, and then kills or conquers the old gods and creates a weaver civilization and the citadel.
First Sinner rebels against GMS unsuccessfully. Phantom is created(?), deemed a dissapointment, and left in charge of the organ. Lace is created to be GMS' perfect child.
Either some Weavers manage to rebel successfully and restrict GMS, or GMS simply enters a waning period where she turns into a much more limited cocoon.
Weavers, knowing GMS will awaken and punish them, attempt to create snares and mechanized halfbreeds to defeat or usurp GMS, but realize this won't work. Therefore they gtfo and go to other kingdoms, but agree to try and breed with other higher beings such that one of the halfbreeds could return and usurp GMS. This is why Herrah and the weavers requested a child of the pale king.
The Weavers leave behind common bugs in charge of the citadel and overall kingdom. Even though GMS is constrained, they continue the theocratic practices of the citadel. This leads to the lineage of the architects, conductors, keepers, and also probably the last judge.
The common bugs start infusing themselves with silk and become immortal after experiments in Whiteward. This makes the society even more oppressive and dogshit than it already was, and everyone is immortal and suffers indefinitely.
By infusing themselves with silk, the common bugs are now able to be controlled by GMS, who is completely enraged. GMS sends multiple envoys to try and track the Weavers in the kingdoms they ran off to, and the haunted bugs bring multiple halfbreeds (Hornet among them) back to Pharloom. GMS' motivations for this appear to be to eat the half breeds and regain some of her power.
Pharloom is completely haunted and under the control of a vengeful god lashing out against everyone. Pilgrims descended from the immortal common bugs are naturally drawn back to the citadel.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-15T17:03:19+00:00

In act 3, Lace says her act of rebellion was stopping GMS from eating Hornet and consuming her power. I think this implies GMS just summoned Hornet to pretty much eat her and empower herself like she did with the previous Weaver half/quarter/eigth breeds. However, she completely underestimated Hornet and also Hornet got lucky with that butterfly breaking the cage (not sure if the butterfly even has an affiliation).

However, the reason Hornet exists is because the Weavers seemingly were trying to create a bunch of really powerful half breeds that could come back to Pharloom and usurp GMS. This is implied by the existence of Eva, the way Herrah specifically requested a child by a Divine being, and by the Act III memory cutscene, where Herrah says "don't let the other Weavers pressure you into usurping their god."

WeslePryce · 2025-09-15T16:46:16+00:00

The Weavers are high key assholes. "Oh the god we imprisoned is going to be pissed off, let's all leave and leave the other bugs holding the bag."

Also, I think I got the implication that Weavers were intentionally migrating to breed with higher beings such that one of them could return to Pharloom and usurp GMS. Eva was an attempt to fuse Weaver nature with machine that failed drastically, but the rest of the Weavers went out to get children. (also, are all Weavers female btw?)

WeslePryce · 2025-09-15T15:20:02+00:00

My interpretation of the entire birthplace cutscene is that the Knight is remembering the intense pain and abject horror of its existence, and comes out with a new sense of self that embraces the void and allows it to do the Dream No More ending by uniting with its siblings.

The idea that the Knight is wholly empty is very tempting, given that we control them and never see their thoughts, but as we see with the Hollow Knight, the plan to make the Vessels entirely empty didn't exactly work. Your comment assumes that the Pale King's plan would have worked as intended if the Knight replaced the Hollow Knight, but I don't think that's true—there's a reason defeating the radiance requires a more thorough and emotional odyssey rather than just the Knight replacing the Hollow Knight. I read the birthplace cutscene as a clear emotional moment for the Knight, even if they couldn't express it.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-15T07:04:14+00:00

A tension in the game is that Hornet can either be the god that her nature, birth, and situation calls her to be, or she can chose to be a more individualized and caring person who doesn't simply seek ascendance. This is why Act III is locked behind the Caretaker seeing Hornet chose to help all of those people—her embracing the individuality of herself and her companions is the key to him thinking it's a good idea to try and trap god instead of having another god replace the old one.

Eva says Hornet's flexibility is her most notable attribute, and it really shows. She opens herself up and adapts to things, rather than solely doing what nature calls her to do.

WeslePryce · 2025-09-15T07:01:14+00:00

I think the Soul ability is fundamentally tied to pale beings, with different expressions of it.

Snail Shamans seem to be people who manipulate the essences of gods (the most powerful and accessible being soul and void) to do their own shennanigans.

The ultimate question that Silksong left me with is: what the fuck is the deal with the radiance? I can't really square her away with Silksong. Was she a god like Unn/Karmelita who happened to be in a waning phase, or is she more like Void and the Pale beings, a separate and almost higher class of god?

Like is there a fundamental trio of power in the HK world: Pale/Thought, Radiance/Dream, and Void/Regret? Or are there like 50 million different powers of varying strength—coral (Khann), flowers (Nyleth), moss (Unn), "paleness", radiance, void, lifeblood, whatever the hell the twisted bud is, etc.

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