Lil' Lady Lynn

(Hopefully mobile won’t eat this ask)

My friend is playing HK for the first time and I’ve been noticing yet more things I didn’t see in the two playthroughs I did. The comment from Lemm about how the statue is the only record of the Hollow Knight stuck out to me, because at first I was like “what the hell, that’s so sad”, but like… there’s not much that could be said about them that wouldn’t reveal how messed up the whole plan was or be an outright fabrication. (Also the design of the statue— they’re on a pedestal shaped like PK’s crown, and beneath that it looks like a huge flower, which you could say represents the White Lady but idk)

There’s this quote from the Seer that I saw going through my hundreds of screenshots that stuck out to me: “Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters.” Obviously this applies to the Radiance, and that’s probably the primary if not only intention, but I immediately thought about the previously mentioned statue (which is interesting too because there are no PK statues in the City of Tears (that I can think of)). As well as the White Palace, and how despite most of it being clearly a dream version of the real thing, certain significant areas seem to be retained as they were in life.

Like even if no one really knew them, PK really tried to make sure THK wouldn’t be forgotten about, even if everything else fell apart, and this got really long but dang I have a lot of thoughts about this game. (Sorry if this isn’t the most eloquently worded.)

YEAHHHHHHH THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I THINK THE STATUE IS SUPPOSED TO BE. It's supposed to be a memory of someone who was supposed to be forgotten! Because even though it would have been better for the Pure Vessel to just fade away from memory, and for the Radiance to die with them, PK just...couldn't do that. He grew to love them, and couldn't bear the thought of them fading away. Lots of people hate it or think that its some cruel form of mockery, but I think it was PK's fatherly affection manifesting in the only way he could show it after sentencing them to die- by making sure that even if they went unknown by everyone around them, the magnitude of their sacrifice would not be forgotten. Them and the dreamers, of course, but the dreamers are sort of secondary to Hollow being the centerpiece, so they're not really what he was going for there

I also think that the 'only death that matters' thing refers to how the gods work in Hallownest, because that seems to be the method PK was using to kill the Radiance, and the method that he tried to use on himself after the kingdom fell. A god will only die when they are damned to fade into obscurity, so putting up a monument to a god's child is kind of a really really major thing to do, even if the people themselves don't know of Hollow's divinity

Regarding your headcannons on pk and midwife, how would the process of laying the eggs turn out for pk? I'd compare it to a kiwi bird. Would be accepting of help? Or would he just one and done it like a regular bug?

Hdhch well, he'd hate the assistance, but it would probably be necessary since he's got a higher chance of producing too-large eggs as a holdover from his full wyrm-sized days. Other than that, though, he's got a typical Hallownest bug clutch size of around 1-10 eggs, which is actually atypical to his species, as a normal wyrm's clutch is typically in the 30-60 range. This is because the tradition with civilized bugs is to merely cull down the clutch until it's a comfortable size/has the healthiest eggs, while wyrms will have around 85% of their clutch naturally killed off via food struggles or other wyrms, making larger clutches the way to go. Really, Midwife's involvement is only important for inspecting the clutch afterwards, because even though PK's body is formed of soul-turned-to-flesh rather than the usual genes and proteins, a wyrm/spider hybrid clutch doesn't really have good chances. No matter who carries, I always have headcanoned that Hornet was the only hatchling out of at least ten other eggs who survived, so Midwife is there to keep an eye on the health of the eggs vs their father, who is of the least concern in the relationship (and who hasn't suffered multiple miscarriages, like I headcanon Herrah to have struggled with).

In the event of something like the Wasteland Wanderer's au, though, where he's alone, I of course like to give him at least one egg that causes a difficult lay, because then that forces him through a period of intense, intimate suffering that makes him reflect on ths gravity of creating new life that he avoided with the vessel plan. Sure, it's sadistic, but eh, he's a god, and it'll also force him to not be an absentee father in the event that there's literally nobody around but him to take care of baby Hornet

The day Hollow gains confidence in themself and learns to love themself fully is the day the world is doomed. Hollow is gonna rule the whole world because of their good looks, lovely personality, great cooking, add confidence and self-love and you get a being that is the object of affections. Idk, just, Hollow is so cool a ND pretty man

What if Lurien got Infected?

Lurien would very literally rather die than ever let the Radiance into his head. If she managed to break down his barriers and force herself in (because let's be real, no mortal stands any chance against a god, no matter how familiar they are with them), it would be suicide. Not just to save the people of Hallownest from himself- for Lurien can be very very dangerous when he needs to be- but also as a massive 'fuck you' to the Radiance. Man would go out in spite knowing it would bring her nothing but fury to lose control of a pawn she could have turned so neatly against the King