Hey everyone!
Welcome back to the channel,
and welcome to the first episode of
"Through the Hollow Veil"
A series wherein
I'll take a look at different things
through the lens, or
more appropriately, the veil
of Team Cherry's 2017 masterpiece
Hollow Knight.
Full Disclosure:
I don't expect to make episodes
of these too frequently,
but (butt?)
it'll be a good thing to fall back on
when I think of something to analyze in this manner.
Before we begin
I just want to say a MASSIVE thank you
for the warm reception of the Silksong Theory video
I had a lot of fun making it
and I'm SUPER glad that you guys liked it.
Now, for this first episode
I thought it would be fun
to take a look at the work of
H.P. Lovecraft
and see how his concepts
of existential dread, Higher Beings,
and complete and utter
mind-bendingly horrifying abominations
influenced so many works of modern fiction
be it directly or indirectly
explicitly, or implicitly.
Based on the digging I've done
I have not been able to find Team Cherry
state anywhere that
Hollow Knight was in any way inspired by Lovecraft.
From design choices to narrative beats -
Nothing.
And yet, when you take a step back
and REALLY analyze how the lore
of Hallownest's tragic fall from grace took place,
it's almost like a beat by beat
story written by Lovecraft himself.
"A Kingdom ravaged by an infection"
"rooting from a god of old."
"A king, pushed to the brink"
"of his sanity, repeating the words:"
"'No cost too great'"
"Going so far as to sacrifice"
"his own children"
"to find a way to fight back"
"only to ultimately fail."
Or succeed.
Depending on the ending you get.
"Innocent civilians turned into grotesque monsters"
"and even a disgraced leader of a tribe"
"forming his own cult"
"to worship The Infection."
All of this,
and the underlying feeling of
existential dread, like
there is NO way to stop this infection,
with even your playable character
being one lowly bug.
The smallest one that still has thought and sanity.
It's all very Lovecraft.
Now, the key difference here
is that in actual Eldritch lore,
there's usually no way to fight back against
old gods.
Humans are less than ants to them,
and could BARELY considered
collateral damage to their whims.
Their existence alone
is our undoing and
that's not by their design.
In the cosmic scale of things we just
simply matter less than insects
to these gods and that's
the TRUE existential dread.
It's not tentacle monsters,
fish people, or colors out of space
It's that in the grand scheme of things
we mean nothing.
WE'RE LESS THAN NOTHING.
We're not even a passing thought
to the lowest of their kind.
Fortunately, in the world of Hollow Knight
our tiny Ghost CAN
fight back against the Old God, Radiance.
He's a blade of light
cutting through the dark,
bleak, existential void that is Hallownest
or at least, what it became.
The Pale King...
...is gone.
The White Lady...
...is in hiding, isolated.
This Kingdom isn't dying,
it's basically, already dead.
But,
in almost direct opposition
to Lovecraft's writing,
Our Knight represents hope.
Hope, which is so rarely found
in Lovecraftian works is what makes
Hollow Knight a phenomenal,
if indirect,
Lovecraftian work itself.
Stories like Dagon,
or Rats in the Walls, among others,
tend to end
with the main character falling
into a pit of madness,
succumbing to the harsh reality
of these Old Gods' existence alone.
It's terrifying.
These stories usually don't have
happy endings because that's the point.
That's Cosmicism.
It's not supposed to be happy.
It's exactly this philosophy that
elevate the works that tend to
utilize most of it,
But subverts it to deliver a narrative
that both terrifies,
and satisfies.
I, however, am not trying to demean
normal Lovecraftian tales in any way, you know?
Stories that subscribe to the philosophy of Cosmicism
and stick to it?  I'm a HUGE fan.
And they're satisfying in their own way.
All I'm putting out there
is the fact that having a tale like this
have a somewhat happy resolution
is refreshing for the genre.
In the game's normal ending entitled:
"The Hollow Knight"
We see The Knight become
the new vessel for the infection.
Now, this falls fairly in line
with a standard Lovecraft ending:
The main conflict is addressed but
it leaves some stuff hanging.
We're to believe that The Knight
IS truly hollow which means that
he could potentially hold
The Radiance off forever,
thus ending the infection, but,
what's already infected
stays infected.
And Hallownest
is still in ruins.
The second ending called "Sealed Siblings"
is more of the same only with Hornet
stuck inside the Black Egg with The Knight.
It's the third ending
called "Dream No More"
that I wanna focus on.
Now, I'd like to belive
that a large chunk of the Hollow Knight fanbase
like this ending the best, because
well, to me it's the best one.
and I hope you all agree.
The Hollow Knight is defeated,
and The Radiance
is destroyed,
which DOES effectively end the infection.
This is a perfect subversion
of a Lovecraftian narrative.
Yes, Ghost also dies in this ending
but the world he leaves behind
is better for it,
as he was able to fight back
against an Old God
and win,
even if it cost him his life.
It's implied that
whatever was infected has gotten better,
and now,
Hallownest can begin again.
The once dead kingdom
now has the opportunity
to be reborn.
In the end, of course
this is ALL just speculative analysis
and personal interpretation.
Unless Team Cherry outright
confirms that they did have some sort
of Lovecraft in mind for the game,
this will always just be speculation.
But,
as a fan of both
literature and gaming,
it's very refreshing
to look at Hollow Knight
from this (Kurt) Angle.
There are tons of games out there
that try to emulate or capture
the fell of Cosmicism,
of Cosmic Terror
Cosmic Horror
And very few
manage to actually succeed.
And if it wasn't intentional
then Team Cherry is just that good
that they actually managed
to successfully do it
without even trying.
And that's exactly what I mean
when I said that
Lovecraft
has influenced so many
directly, or indirectly.
But, that's it for me
Do you have any thoughts on this matter?
What else would you like to be analyzed
"Through the Hollow Veil"?
Most importantly,
were there any major gaps
in my analysis of both
Lovecraft and Hollow Knight?
Let me know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed it
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when I upload new videos.
This is AlfeRex the Keeper,
signing off!
