Review of Hollow Knight: Silksong

I started writing this as a review but I don't think I have anything particularly unique to say about how good Silksong is. I felt compelled instead to write about what I pulled from the narrative of SilkSong. Silksong an allegory for grief.

One moment pinballed around in my brain screaming "what about!?" no matter what aspect of the game I contemplated. When Hornet was cradled gently and lifted out of the abyss by the void. In that solitary moment of tenderness Hornet briefly sees her Mother's face.¹ Hornet's past was revealed in the segment just before the final battle. Born as a tool or weapon to right her ancestors wrongs but still caring for and being cared for by her Mother. It's not explicit how long Hornet has been without family but it feels like a long time. Despite this extended time Hornet still holds on to her memory of her Mother strongly. The first let's call it "motif" of grief in Silksong is about the ways it can reach far into the future.

My personal belief is that grief is a lifelong expression of love and those we grieve live on through it. Memories of loved ones can guide us, and influence us. Grief also carries the hopes of the departed. Sometimes it's a hope for a better world, or even a better life for the people they love. If the bereaved remembers what the departed wished for then that wish lives on, carried forward by the grief that never truly ceases, despite becoming easier to manage with time. I see that manifested in Hornet and in turn Hornet sees this in Lace. A mother who put her hopes and dreams into a child who was made to survive in the hopes of a better future being possible.² While Lace has her own motivations and a different relationship with Grand Mother Silk there is still a great deal of overlap between the two. Weirdly this same theme overlaps with another character in Silksong: Pharloom itself.

Pharloom and it's residents come across as an embodiment of grief, in particular denial. The world is crumbling in every way and almost nobody acknowledges the obvious state of the kingdom. Many denying the dilapidated state of the crucible seem to believe their pilgrimage will somehow still end in salvation. One of my favorite examples of acceptance is the singing bug. She finds her way to Songclave only to have her faith shaken. Instead of retreating into denial like many others she chooses responsibility and cares for the others in the camp. This adjustment is pretty significant to me because (let me look up this poor bug's name) Sherma actually navigates Pharloom and survives through her faith. Players may inadvertantly clear the path for her but Sherma's faith kept her going and from being driven insane during the journey. The significance of this shift comes from how Sherma resolves the dissonance between "My faith got me here" and "faith alone cannot help these bugs." Choosing responsibility not only a shifts Sherma from a passive to active role but also a shifts her away from the common denial of the other bugs "I take it on faith things will be fine" to acceptance "things will definitely not be fine if I don't do something about it."

Many NPC stories in Pharloom are also steeped in themes of grief. Shakra follows her master's trail and her master passes before she manages to catch up. The player and Shakra celebrate her before leaving her to her resting place. The Green Prince's grief leads him to sacrifice himself for an opportunity to dance with the ghost of his beloved one last time. When Hornet claims the hearts of the 3 Monarchs it could even be interpreted as that motif of passing wishes to the bereaved through grief. With almost no one left to grieve these Monarchs their wishes cannot be carried on. While Hornet's actions snuff out the last echo of their existence it also gives their legacy another chance to have meaning. Almost like the strange tinge of grief one might feel when pondering lost civilizations. Studying history can be quite emotional and learning about a societies fall can make you feel a kind of grief for something that you never got to see.³

The last shape grief took on during SilkSong was my own. As the 3rd act began I started to realize how intense the impact of my choices were for Pharloom. At first it felt like "wow this is so cool" and then I started checking on everyone. One by one I found characters I loved put in a bad position at best, or dead. I felt bad for Shakra having to fight to exhaustion to protect Bellhart. I felt bad for the 12th Architect and I carried her mechanical heart to the end credits. Despite knowing she was already declining and may have passed naturally it was still sad.⁴ One characters death in particular really fucked me up though. Maybe you guessed it. Garamond? Nope. Sure his story was sad but he died fighting for something and there's a bit of comfort in that. The death that really impacted me was Loam.

If you don't remember Loam is don't feel bad. Even I had to look up his name while writing this (I had to look up every name but Hornet's actually.) Loam was the horselike bug running on the treadmill in the underworks. Loam died without ever getting a chance at the salvation he believed he was working tirelessly to achieve. It's a small balm knowing he didn't seem to realize his salvation was a lie but it almost made it worse. I think Loam's innocence, his pointless death, and the life he was robbed of by the circumstances of his birth really got to me. I had a bad feeling on my way to check on him and it took me a long time to leave once I entered the room. I felt sorry for him not just because it was my actions that killed him, but I was sorry for the freedom he'd never know. I think he would have loved living with the fleas or the sprintmaster for the rest of his days. Running for fun, I bet he'd be happy. Part of me attaches to the "life unlived" motif of grief and I thought maybe that was why his death hit me so hard. I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 30s. I spent 3 decades not knowing I was effectively disabled my entire life. I have spent a lot of time mourning the life or career or relationships I might have had if I'd known sooner. But honestly "too late" is not the same as never. I think Loam's death hit me from a different place entirely. I think of terminally ill children, or kids who die in a war or worse. That's where my heart ends up when I think of Loam and I'd be lying if I said it was a simple feeling. I'm glad I ran with him a really long time to see if there was some easter egg or something. Maybe it's because I'm a new-ish Dad but the weight of just how unfair Loam's death was really stuck with me. Sorry buddy, you truly deserved better.

I know not everything in SilkSong was an allegory for the pain and impact of loss. Still almost everything important to me definitely was. I find myself deeply appreciating how many flavors of grief the game portrayed even in just the limited examples I outlined here. There's tons more. Maybe if I end up with 3k a month in Patreon supporters I'll make a YouTube video outlining every single one. I want to touch on one more important part of grief that reveals itself through the stories in SilkSong: perseverance. Hornet's memories, love, and grief propells her rather than acting as foil. Grief does not always function this way in reality because it's not intrinsic to grief. Not everyone or everything we grieve can be inspirational after all. Still if the potential is there, and you work to see it that way, a lot of strength can be drawn from the well of "they would be proud of me." I think that despite unfair nature of the burden put on Hornet she loved her mother deeply and wants to fulfill her mother's wish. There's much to be said about how the love of a parent is not always gentle or kind too. I'd love to explore the complicated nature of the love between a child and an unfair parent but I couldn't do it justice with what I know now. I hope it's something I can find when I start exploring fan theories. I might tag a little edit on here if something particularly theory shattering comes up. Silksong will likely take up a small corner of my mind for the rest of my life, and I won't be surprised when see a flash of my Mother's face when a kind embrace lifts me from the darkness.

Thanks for reading. Best luck to you. <3