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Quirrel was not suicidal
As a 3-year hollow knight fan, I see "Stag Beetles and Broken Legs" get recommended a lot. A lot a lot. Considered by many to be the definitive Hollow Knight fanfiction, it generates fanart and gushing recommendations every time it's mentioned.
But there's one glaring issue of interpretation I've gathered: It frames Quirrel at the Blue Lake as suicidal.
And I don't think that's correct at all.
Once you get down to it, everything in Hallownest is about death and avoiding it. The Pale King's eternal kingdom, the Soulmaster's shaping of soul, the Radiance's aimless reanimated vengeance... in clinging to life, they strip themselves of dignity, and cause unfathomable suffering for naught. Characters who think they will never die, like Tiso, meet their unceremonious end, unburied and unmourned. "All things must accept an end," in the words of Vespa's ghost.
A minor character reiterating one of the central themes of the game: hold that thought.
Few characters have immortality aside from gods. Even with gods, immortality is highly conditional: but that's a different essay. In otherwise "mortal" characters who lasted too long, they seem ghostlike themselves: the pale mourner evokes the classic white lady archetype, and dissipates into thin air once her business is finished. The seer appears to have a conditional immortality as well: once the maximum essence is collected, she, too, dissipates, having finally assured a new Wielder has come.
Quirrel seems to operate on this conditional immortality as well. Considering he left long enough ago for the plan to be put into action, the fail of it, and for the fallen kingdom of Hallownest to become "ancient". Like the Mourner and Seer, he probably should have reached the end of his natural lifespan long, long ago: and, as we see Monomon's mask protect him from killing blows in the prequel comic, it's fairly logical to conclude it's also extending his lifespan. No point in creating a back-up plan if the back-up isn't protected, right?
And what happens if you remove the lifesource?
Well... let's put it this way. "I begin to feel my age" takes on more weight than a quip about how much time has passed, or the burden of memory. Without Monomon's protection, his statement metamorphoses into an admission: Quirrel is starting to feel, body and mind, that his artificially-extended lifespan is catching up with him.
So that's the first half: accepting death. The second half is fulfilling your purpose for living: Let's talk about the Nailsmith.
The Nailsmith is a character who lives to forge nails. That's his art and purpose: to forge a Pure Nail. Once his purpose is completed, he loses his will to live: after all, it's completed. The way the ghosts pass on, and how Ghost too disappears when their purpose (defeat the radiance) is completed, the Nailsmith asks the player to kill him. Even his thoughts revolve around his worthlessness. His dream nail dialogue reads "My life's work achieved… What more is left…?" To the Nailsmith - and the oligarchs of the game - completing your purpose means you have outlived your usefulness. But there is a key difference between the Nailsmith's final* thoughts and Quirrel's final thoughts. For comparison:
"All tragedy erased. I see only wonders..."
This is not the dialogue of a suicidal person. Quirrel is not self loathing. He doesn't feel worthless. He's grateful for the long life he's lived, and the blessing that he gets to experience it twice over. And this is his dream nail dialogue: it's objective truth he's not putting on a brave face but harboring darker thoughts. Genuinely, I would not call these the thoughts of someone who wants to die: this is the thought process of someone who wants to live. You may extrapolate or choose to ignore, but I don't think it's founded to interpret Quirrel as suicidal.
And that establishes difference between the Nailsmith and Quirrel: Quirrel doesn't seem burdened by his lack of purpose. In fact, I don't even think he considered Monomon his purpose to begin with. We know from the Nailsmith that fulfilling your purpose means you've outlived your usefulness; you die, or you find a new purpose. But the Nailsmith's purpose was smithing nails, and he devoted himself to it. Quirrel is called back to Hallownest, but spends 90% of his time in it just... fucking about, to put it crassly. He does want to solve the mystery of his being called, but he takes his time. He doesn't consider his purpose is to serve Monomon; he's not overtaken by a passion or skill; Quirrel is a traveler. He's just after the wonders.
At the end, he does exactly that. He lived a long, full life for himself and no other, seeking out wonders and taking his time. He finished what he was called to do, but it's telling even his final goal - seeing the Blue Lake - is a goal for himself, and not something he was told to do. He spent most of that long life not knowing he had a purpose someone else set, and doing what he wanted.
(quirrel voice i was put on this earth to accomplish 1 thing but i forgot what it was so thankfully i can do whatever i want)
Despite his final thoughts being of someone who loves living, Quirrel is... almost absolutely dead. The file is called quirrel_death_nail.png. One of his first lines in the game is advising you to loot weapons from corpses, because the dead "shouldn't be burdened with such things," and the last sign of him is his abandoned nail. Furthermore, he abandons his nail at the time Hallownest is most dangerous, with the Radiance so close to being free. Self defense is more important than ever, and a character as wise as Mr. Either-you're-alert-or-you're-dead wouldn't abandon his nail at such a crucial moment! Overall, Hollow Knight is a game that keeps in the classic tragic opera tradition of killing off as much of its cast as possible before the final curtain, and Quirrel is no exception. You can argue that quirrel_death_nail.png is the death of "Quirrel the wanderer," but I'm not going to lie, the signs aren't in looking good.
But I don't think he drowned. Just for fun, let's bring a common fan interpretation into the fray: Quirrel is commonly interpreted as a pillbug. (So do I - it's just too perfect.) Neatly, pillbugs are actually crustaceans, and have gills! Given the general aquatic theme of fog canyon and his final stop at blue lake, the effect is less "giving up" and more "return to homeland/true nature," which is what Quirrel's arc is all about. I wouldn't worry about him drowning.
But if he's dead, and his last stop was at Blue Lake, but he didn't drown, what did happen to him?
Remember the Seer and Pale Mourner, and their conditional immortality? Keeping in line with the other ghosts-that-haven't-died in the resting grounds, I like to think Quirrel, upon completing his task, likewise fades into light. The location, lack of clarity between immortal, alive, or dead, and completion of unfinished business all line up for Quirrel to go the same way. This idea is a bit more of a stretch than all the others, but I believe it suits him. It's fair. It's graceful. It's direct contrast to an unburied corpse or an unmarked grave, like all the Fools at Kingdom's Edge.
So, In conclusion: Quirrel didn't drown himself. He doesn't think he's worthless or that he doesn't want to live. He saw his time is up - and perhaps had been up for a while - and does not scrabble or cling, but bows out with grace. In turn, the wandering scholar earns the rarest jewel in all of Hallownest: a dignified passing.
Rest in peace, Quirrel. You've earned it.
#anyway this is why i refuse to read sbabl#aside from the complexes#quirrel#meta#bobbinbugs originals#hollow knight meta#hollow knight#long ass post. made this while depressed#bon appetit#UPDATE FIXED A GLARING ERROR OR SIX#TUMBLR SAVED IT WEIRD AND LEFT BEHIND A COPYPASTE I DELETED. OOPS OOPS OOPS#in tumblr's defense firefox was crashing a lot for no reason that day
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hornet does not get flustered, ever. ok? she doesn't blush and she doesn't freeze up. she'll think about her rival getting all up in her face, blowing a kiss, etc at 3am and her gaze will harden and be like 'hm. this is hatred. i have to kill her'
#lacenet#headcanon#it's extremely hard to tell even from an outside perspective that she has a crush!!!#her wires are hella crossed from all the trauma#silksong#and the autism as well#her modes are 'attack' and 'probably don't attack'#with a hefty side of emotional repression#(hornet internal monolouge) she blew me a KISS... she was trying to HUMILIATE me...... I MUST DEFEND MYSELF. (takes a bullet for lace)#(multiple times)#forge-daughter: that is not hatred. (thumbs up) good luck girl#lace finally is like ok. i'm pinning you against the wall because i want to kiss you. do you need a moment#and hornet has to process that information & unpack her shit for like 3 days before she comes back deciding that sounds nice actually#bobbinbugs originals#hornet
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Anne Carson, Antigonick / Team Cherry, Hollow Knight.
#the visual similarities here. woof.#hornet#hornet hk#hornet silksong#meta#bobbinbugs originals#silksong#holow knight meta#hollow knight#hk meta#heaaavily inspired by an rgu post formatted the same way!#lace#antigone#antigonick#anne carson
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GIRLS WITH CLOAKS AND GRIEF-RELATED FAMILIAL TRAUMA GANG
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Lace: if i was a fragile linen would you gently handwash me 🥺 or would you put my in that damned mashine 😑
Hornet: Linens are NOT fragile. I’m going to beat the shit out of you
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Hornet is not a very angry or quick to anger adult, but I stand by her being an extremely angry child. If the kingdom you were born to protect was falling to ruin from a magic plague and you watched your family dwindle away 1 by 1 you’d be a pretty fuckin angry kid too
#she learns to wear grim inevitability with grace but I’ll bet she went down that path kicking and screaming#bobbinbugs originals#hornet#headcanon#hollow knight
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Thinking about Hornet and her implied backstory, that said, here’s a list of headcanons.
Spent short time frame living with Herrah after birth - all newborn bugs are more akin to 3-4yos by our standards, so she knew some stuff. She learned a bit about her mother’s culture, how to spider, and the strong community in Deepnest, raised communally with the midwife’s supervision. Was still in an odd position as technically princess, but the other babies didn’t know - was never close with any deepnest bug beside her mother, but was overall accepted in a way she hasn’t been since. Herrah also told her as much truth as she could about what was happening to Hallownest and what would happen to her.
Herrah also consulted Vespa on the name of the baby. The spiders and the bees had an alliance, and Herrah hoped that Hornet would train under Vespa.
Sent away to live within the white palace pre-sealing while still very young. Hornet got to know the other dreamers a little bit, but again, barely remembers them now. She overheard many things in discussions with Monomon when they thought she wasn’t listening, but she learned of and got used to the vessel concept young.
Was taught things like courtly manners, high education, and ruling responsibility, in the assumption that Hallownest would have a future. However she was yet again in an odd position, as a princess who would never inherent a kingdom, and the story of her siring an open secret. Either way, as her sire, the Pale King was expected to be responsible for what happened to her after Herrah was sealed away, and he expected her to live in the palace. (Bring light to the dark, civilize the beasts... etc.)
Hornet hated it. Bright palace vs dark Deepnest. Constricting attire vs the freedom of hatchlings to feel and explore their home. The most comforting thing to her was the dark, still presence of the Pure Vessel, who was often being trained or otherwise unavailable, but their emotional distance didn’t bother her much. She still convinced them to teach her some basic nail techniques. They were familiar and that’s what mattered. Hornet had quite the temper, but learned how to repress herself as part of her courtly manners, even if she didn’t generally do it at that age.
After the sealing, both Herrah and HK - the only people she tolerated - were gone, her surly mood exacerbated. While Hallownest enjoyed a renaissance, Hornet became the weird, dirty girl that coolly tells you the date and time of your death if you look at her wrong, as well as someone who tells you they’re not mad and then breaks plates as soon as you’re out of the room. In an effort to conform, she started not only repressing but closing off some of her emotions - trying not to think too hard about things and focusing mostly on what she can do so she doesn’t boil over. the vessels and PK as a whole became part of this - if Hornet really unpacked her feelings she’d find a lot of rage for PK (her mother’s pointless dreaming, the children slated to die, general shitty fatherhood, the sheer weight of his failures that he imposes on others...) that she ignores because she got used to it.
PK, staking on Herrah’s closeness with the Vespa, sent her off for intensive training at the Hive. Hornet trained for a few years under Vespa and her knight to be, Hive Knight, similar to a boarding school. The constant movement and intense work was good for her mood, and she built up a rapport with Hive Knight - they developed the spikeball weapon together, each with their own twist on it. Hornet’s hot temper became a very, very cold rage that’s nigh-impossible to break.
It’s unclear how the fall of the kingdom went from Hornet’s perspective, but either way, the Radiance came back as the infection, and the hive was sealed off. if she didn’t finish training beforehand, she would have been kicked out - either way, the pale king essentially gave her a patrol (or she offered to patrol and protect the kingdom? or did it of her own accord without his approval?) that she upholds diligently, drawing on Vespa’s training, her mother’s advice, and her own drive for survival.
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what if you saved me from my gilded cage. and it was mutual. and we were both girls
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Bad end: full on queerbait, lacenet has almost no subtext in the game and Lace dies at the end, subtext is with different characters, the marriage imagery is lace in an arranged marriage and nothing else or was totally accidental
Good end: the best ending is locked behind lace and hornet’s wedding, gamer dudebros die mad, most epic W for lesbians since korrasami
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Hornet is just so. She was born to protect but how do you protect something that’s rotting?
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Something fun: most of the area themes are rearrangements of the title theme, and the soul sanctum follows the same chord progression and melody as CoT in a minor key
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For a character so marketable-plushie shaped, it is astounding and saddening there is no marketable plushie of hive knight.
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Hollow’s tragedy is that they were always fated to fail. Hornet’s tragedy is that she has to live on. Ghost’s tragedy is that they have to die at the end of Dream No More, for some reason
#bobbinbugs originals#seriously. what’s up with that#ghost did not have to die at that ending and bel I was confused when I first read that’s how the cutscene went#I could do an analysis but I have to prep the house for a guest and cooking#ask me later#hollow knight
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HII so what do you mean about vessel OCs being thematically relevant? Did you mean specific OCs or the concept of making a vessel OC in general? either way i would love to read your thoughts
An ask! Anon, may you be blessed evermore. Thank you!
As for thematically relevant vessels, well… that’s kind of two separate questions! I’ll go with the general question for now, because that’s way easier to answer, but frankly I’m going to devolve into rambling and start talking about my little guys. You’ve been warned!
A lot of people just want to make A Guy and give them a story, with the backstory of the vessels as a base. And that’s all well and good! It’s lovely and compelling, and I support that. But hollow knight has a strong theme of family. You can connect a lot of the themes from there: duty in the name of your parents, having to unfairly fill a sibling’s shoes, the idea you’re one of many, the desire to reconnect despite everything: it all comes down to the fact that the 3 main characters are related.
All the vessels are a part of a family, and all save one are very young children at that. Either by luck or sheer solemn brutality, ghost managed to rough it on their own. But all of hollow knight is the story of those three siblings trying to connect with each other, and never fully bridging the gap: often, people design vessels in isolation, but I find it most interesting if they come in droves. Ghost, Hornet, and THK are an emotionally-estranged set. How would they react to a set of vessels who work together?
(I’ve seen this idea explored by @talos-the-mourning-vessel, which is probably why they’re my favorite vessel oc to date!)
In turn, I’m using this segue as an excuse to talk about my little guys.
I have two little guys, basically intended as self-inserts of myself and @two-children-in-a-trenchcoat (hi buddy!) and intended for a multiplayer true end let’s play that probably isn’t going to happen. Welp. Regardless… these two sealed their fates in the abyss/birthplace, where they helped each other up instead of killing each other. Canonically they went up the wall closest to the door (not the middle platforms) and pk was facing the wrong way and didn’t notice. Pk moment
They then decide “this entire kingdom sucks we need to leave NOW” and do exactly that, returning when they hear hollow scream, same as ghost. They then show up 15 min late to hallownest with Starbucks.* Their asses are not saving hallownest ‼️‼️
They don’t have the guts, resolve, or skill that Ghost does. Their main survival skill is being quick to retreat and having the other’s back.
I really love these guys because of how they interact with ghost: or, should I say, ghost hates them. Hollow knight, as is always worth reiterating, is the story of 3 siblings trying to reach for each other and never quite bridging the gap. Seeing their family actually act like family: always willing to help the other up & totally ride or die would be such a gut punch to Ghost.
There’s also hungry knight, which is the story of hk in extreme miniature, but missed the central emotional core and implied story behind “I carried a fallen companion to a resurrection altar (because they’re so fundamental to me I can’t continue without them)” that didn’t fully make it into hk. (that implied story was the only compelling part about hungry knight tbh. I love to see extreme hk beta but let’s be real. It’s not good.) I like the idea, and these two continue that dropped thread in a way that doesn’t undo ghost’s whole “lone warrior” vibe. Not even a vibe, it’s a theme: they were refused a helping hand from the very start. They crawled out alone, they returned alone, they take on the burden alone. These two won’t save the world, but they have each other, which rubs everyone in hallownest the wrong way, probably.
These are all my miscellaneous thoughts on the matter, really! Thank you for asking. I ought to draw my little guys sometime.
*I think they have their reasons. Partly fear, partly arguing, partly distance. They have no more memories than ghost, but know they wanted to leave the call’s origin so badly it sent them running blindly into the wastes. They finally came ‘round from the appeal/duty of there being another like them, but they were very avoidant to return.
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you get what I’m saying?
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hornet x quirrel
Rephrasing from my replies, lol
Ways I don't like it:
I think it contorts both of them just totally out of character in the traditional shipping sense. Again I don't engage with it at all, but I've noticed Quirrel stays mostly himself, but Hornet becomes a generic tusundre - and even when you do that, I still don't think they have chemistry. Quirrel naturally takes on a mentoring role and I believe Hornet would find that disrespectful, like she needed help - anyone can see that she's more than capable of handling herself! She emits "I'M NOT INTERESTED AND I DON'T NEED HELP" at an astounding force and Quirrel would be smart enough to pick up on that, lol.
I also think that going straight to romance is disrespectful to Quirrel's character as well. Speaking of smart- he seems to be good at reading people, and Hornet, under the immense amount of pressure that she is... getting attached to someone romantically would upset her more than anything, and be an extra burden on her in that situation. He wouldn't do that. He's considerate.
This isn't hate for anyone who ships it, it's just not at all close to what I think of as canon.
Ways I could like it:
As a friendship... I think there could be potential, but not for most of the game. In the past, Hornet has a decent chance of never having met him, or still being a little baby if she did. (And if we take the side comic as canon, that is correct.) It would be interesting if Hornet indulged Quirrel in a long, difficult talk about what happened and the future of the kingdom after Monomon falls, and related the deaths of their respective dreamers, and so on. Bugs who know what really happened in Hallownest aren't exactly common, and I think that would lift a weight on both of them.
send me literally any hk relationship and I'll tell you my thoughts
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