Alternative Character Interpretation / Hollow Knight

All spoilers on this page are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

The ambiguity of the game's story makes it rife with different character interpretations and questions from fans. Here are some of the most prominent examples:

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• After you rescue all of the Grubs, does the Grub Father really eat all his children? Or is he, as suggested by the charm description, allowing them to "move to the next stage of their lives" by serving as a living cocoon? Hitting him with the Dream Nail gets you the message, "Happy...happy...happy!!", which could either be coming from him, the Grubs, or both.
• Playing off the above example with the Grubs, is the Collector just a lunatic? Or are they a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to save the Grubs from a terrifying fate at their father's own jaws? The Godmaster expansion implies the latter since their statue in the Hall of Gods reads "Joyful god of protection".
• In regards to the Knight and the player's own actions: if you use the Dream Nail on the "ghosts", are you basically destroying a lost soul and taking its power for your own? Are you helping them move on to the afterlife, freeing the ghosts from the cruel fate of wandering aimlessly for eternity? Or are you simply absorbing a lingering old shadow, a memory with no true sentience, and in a way ensuring that it will live on in you?
• How hollow is the Knight?
  • On one hand, the Knight was created to be an Empty Shell, and the White Lady seems to consider them hollow in a way that the original Hollow Knight was not, which is why she encourages the Knight to be the replacement.
  • On the other, the description for the Void Heart charm says that it "unifies the void under the bearer's will", despite vessels supposedly having no will to break. In Steel Soul Mode, if you refuse to trade with Jinn, she will comment "it has a will... all its own. Can refuse." There's also the game's various sidequests, most of which have no direct relevance to the Knight's ostensible goal (getting extra geo/charms/mask shards can certainly help, but you only really need the Vengeful Spirit, the Dream Nail, and most of the movement skills). In addition, the White Lady was complicit in the Pale King's plan, meaning her perspective on things relating to it can't be said to be objective or reliable.
• Where has the Knight been before they return to Hallownest? They also return with prior knowledge that drives their actions which the player doesn't even necessarily have without reading spoilers upfront, knowing about Hallownest and its current conditions, and even there being a thing that can be fixed to help it, and even there being a Hollow Knight, as shown through Hornet's dialogues.
  • Could this mean there have been rumors in the Abyss about the Pale King's plan, or that he even advertises it? If the Knight knows about it, could the Hollow Knight also have known about it when they emerge from the Abyss? Does the entire Birthplace memory just show vessels might have been acting on that knowledge and thus show how the project is doomed early on?
• Is the Seer who gives you the Dream Nail actually a servant of the Radiance? Is it all part of an elaborate gambit by the Radiance to be set free?
• Should it be put to question and pushed to some answer why there's much moth elements in game, even outside of the moths' spiritual abilities and the causalities around the infection and allegiance implications? For example the need for the MOTHwing cloak for the hero to even advance past earlier areas. What could be the Greenpath corpse's story, as they don't look like a moth? And as the fighting arena is chosen by Hornet, how does she come into this?
  • Would this imply the Knight might not be the first vessel to do what they try to do? How much does Hornet know about everyone the Knight eventually defeats before the changes happen?
  • Do the Monarch Wings have allegiance connotations? It's not the only place we see similar-looking feather-like fragments and at least one other place is with Absrad.
    • What could it signify that the Monarch Wings is there with the three dreamers as one of the four conditions that could, through any one of them, expedite the seal breaking in the Black Egg Temple? Does it incline towards suggesting the seal has something to do with the moths too, or to it involving who put it in the Ancient Basin (which is likely just the Pale King)?
• Why does the Hollow Knight start stabbing themself during the last phase of their boss fight? Are they desperately trying to free the infection to stop the player? Attempting to kill the infection before they lose themself completely? Or trying to help the player by killing themself to expose the infection to the player's attacks? Or do they see the infection as something non-physical that wouldn't leak through wounds but can be contained if the pain could help strengthen their will?
• Were Zote's parents really abusive, twisting him into the Jerkass he is today? Or is he exaggerating their mistakes in his own mind, in the same way he tends to exaggerate his supposed mighty deeds? Or perhaps a combination of the two?
• Actually, is it a coincidence Zote looks so much like a vessel in how he's dressed? Is all of the above in some way related to the dismal nature of Abyss?
• Are the Husk soldiers that defend Isma's Grove simply more of the same mindless creatures that the player encounters elsewhere? Or have they retained some level of sentience that allows them to keep defending the grave of their former master, even in death? The Hunter's Journal claims that they're just reanimated pieces of armor, but nothing asserts that he really knows what's going on, either.
• Does Quirrel die after the player's last talk with him, his mission and dream fulfilled? Or does he leave for somewhere beyond Hallownest? According to the lore tablet at the Howling Cliff, it could essentially be both...
• And is the Howling Cliff tablet truthful or is it just an outright loyalty warning or feeble mind-prison installed by the Pale King, basically telling his subjects not to bother looking outside his kingdom? Or from another entity, as we sort of don't know well between the different writing systems.
• Why would there be messages left for the higher beings, in a way anticipating their arrival? And especially in-universe speaking why would there be the tutorial tablet that teaches either the player or the Knight or general higher beings to use focus, which apparantly results in a difference between the mechanics of Life between the Knight and the majority of other Hallownest creatures? Why are they expected and taught while others don't get to learn this? And is Soul not even an existing mechanism for higher beings and something of the Pale King's creation? And apart from the tablets, are there other mechanics, relics, items or information that need to be seen similarly?
• Grimm in general has a lot of ambiguity.
  • Is Grimm truly benevolent? Or is he hiding darker ulterior motives? Either of the endings for the campaign can be taken to support both sides, although the Nightmare King may say a lot about what his true agenda may be.
  • On the topic of Grimm, what exactly is the Nightmare King? It doesn't bow to you like Grimm does, and its dreamnail dialogue isn't quite in line with Grimm's - dreamnailing either of them in Godhome will show that they each seem to have very dissimilar views on the whole thing. Is Grimm even in control of its actions? Is he being possessed? Is it some projection of the Nightmare Heart's power, rather than Grimm himself?
  • Is the Nightmare Heart sentient? If so, what are its plans? Brumm seems to consider the troupe to be slaves to its power, but its actual goals and motivations (if any) are unclear.
• Is the Pale King truly a benevolent ruler? Or is he an Anti-Hero who uses his benevolence as a facade? While his subjects worshiped him and his Queen dearly loved him, he was also willing to take very extreme measures to defeat his enemies and safeguard his subjects. In particular, his treatment of the beings that became the Vessels stands out as cruel, and the Dung Defender voices his disapproval of the plan on ethical grounds. Similarly, the context surrounding his usurping of The Radiance's position is vague, leaving it difficult to determine whether or not he was a true improvement over her, and if replacing worship of The Radiance with worship of himself isn't just more of the same.
• What was the reasoning behind all those traps, buzzsaws and spikes that the Pale King had placed everywhere in the White Palace? Are there any In-Universe lore justifications other than having a Platform Hell section? There were two interpretations based on the assumption that the Pale King explicitly ordered them for a purpose. The first was to lock himself in his palace, with no easy chance of going out. This is hinted by his corpse found sitting on his throne, housing a half of the Kingsoul. This could make sense as a self-punishment once the King realized that he failed to contain the infection. The second theory runs on the secret cutscene found by completing the Path of Pain, wherein the Pale King and the young Hollow Knight gaze in the distance, and glancing at each other. Since this cutscene plays only at the end of the route, there are fans who claim that all these traps in the palace were elaborately made to test the strength and limits of the chosen Vessels. Having to see the young Hollow Knight at the final room implies that they were the only successful Vessel who went through all the traps in the Path of Pain, who succeeded in the Pale King's test, and had proven themself as a true, worthy Vessel.
  • Or not a factual account and designed for the bugs of his time, but fabricated and left there for someone from after the palace is gone to access, as the non-dissolved Kingsmold on the palace grounds seems likely to be in a deliberately preserved state and shows some plausibility for this happening.
    • If it's in-universe designed for someone like the Knight, it could possibly be inferred the Kingsoul is what they get tested for, both in-universe and out. And there follows the question of what the tablets and hidden rooms are there to signify or communicate for the designer.
  • Or not designed and intended, but descriptive of a perception of things related to the Pale King? Maybe the Kingsmold happens to be somehow capable of dream and the Pale King is making use of this.
• The Kingsoul charm could literally be the king's soul, as Salubra states that some charms are formed from the essence of bugs (such as in the case of Joni's Blessing), and that the White Lady states that she feels the presence of her King when you equip the charm. The "No Cost Too Great" quote may also imply that the King sacrificed himself. But since his current state or whereabouts are left ambiguous, this case remains a theory, and that "No Cost Too Great" is interpreted by some players as an act of sacrificing others instead.
• The secret cutscene at the end of the Path of Pain is also open to more interpretations despite being a Tear Jerker. That short glance between the Pale King and the Hollow Knight while looking at the clouds implies a father-and-child moment. But is this a genuine gesture of the Pale King, who has finally grown close to the chosen Vessel and treat it as his child? Is this simple gesture a just test to see if the young Hollow Knight would elicit a reaction or emotion, a way to determine if the vessel is completely hollow or not? Or is this act driven by guilt, after witnessing all the other failed experimental Vessels that were thrown in the Abyss?
• Should the saying of the Hollow Knight turning out to be an impure vessel out of them forming a bond with the Pale King be believed? If the Pale King's plan has some equivalence of scientific proof, would it be possible their "impurity" is from something else, ranging from wanting to be the one to help the kingdom thus arriving at the exit platform first, with the aspect of dooming their kin in the process buried beneath the actual pure intentions maybe to serve, to the capability for surviving the abyss long enough to be noticed by the king while many shells on the floor look dead-before-grown necessarily involving some extent of what the Radiance spreads infection through?
• Is The Radiance wholly evil? This is a difficult question to answer due to the efforts of Hallownest's own King. Because he attempted (and very nearly succeeded) in rendering the Radiance an Un-person, there is very little lore available on what The Radiance was like before the Pale King took over. Adding to the confusion, there are friendly characters that play a prominent role in bringing about The Radiance's eventual demise that strongly imply that their true loyalties still belong to her (The Seer most prominent among them). While The Radiance is certainly responsible for the plague that kicks off the events of the game, the specifics are never fully explained and The Radiance's motivations are never completely understood.
• Regarding Zote and his statue in the Hall of Gods, how is he able to have a commemorative statue in the first place? Did the Godseekers view him as a god but labeled him as the weakest of all (hence why his statue is hidden above the hall)? Or is his pride and ego so high that it physically manifested there without the Godseekers realizing (hence why there is no Godseeker spectating The Eternal Ordeal Mini-Game)?
• Just what happens in the Godmaster endings? Did the Hollow Vessel willingly decide to undergo a Face–Heel Turn to kill the Radiance at its full power, becoming a Eldritch Abomination personification of the abyss? Or was it unable to handle the godly powers it unwittingly fed to the void it was connected to in the course of trying to get rid of the Radiance's very essence and overcome by the darkness? Also, is its subsequent attempt to consume the world in shadow a willingly initiated Assimilation Plot? Or a massive fit of void-corrupted Power Incontinence?

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