Can we please have more thoughts about Hollow having a strong maternal instinct? Because it’s smth I absolutely agree on. Smth about their patience and being that gentle giant characters screams “good with kids” for me.

I also think some of it is just leftover good memories of baby hornet. It might just be the projection but having a baby sibling at some point really nails in a positive association with kids for me, that I really think they’d have too. Happy memories of bby hornet zooming down the halls without a care def plays into why they would like and tolerate kids so much. They saw first hand a lot of key moments with hornet and I think that does really shape them, esp when their other internalized experiences almost entirely consist of “git gud to contain an angry god. Also you’re not a person.”

Side note: I once read a fic where Midwife teaches Hollow how to be a midwife/grub sitter for the post infection kingdom and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it but it really opened my eyes to maternal Hollow.

That fic is Broken Open Revealing Hollowness and Vibrance!! It's written by my friend @vivifrage and is honestly my favorite fic in the fandom, so I'm always gonna plug it when I can :3

But lol yeah you can blame that fic as well for giving me the hcs for maternal Hollow, because I think that it just fits really well with them. They never really had a choice to become the Hollow Knight, but they did seem to want very badly to be truly hollow, and I've always interpreted that as them having a naturally protective/nurturing nature due to the presumed benefit of their sacrifice. We know that the Pale King cared for his civilians very very deeply, enough that he would ruin his entire family for their benefit, so I can easily see Hollow picking up on that as well, especially since their sacrifice working means that the death of their other siblings wouldn't have been in vain. So even if they failed in that end, them guarding whatever nurseries might be around in a slowly-rebuilding Hallownest would allow them to extend that protective instinct to the few remaining survivors that exist, and to show it in a manner that's a lot softer and gentler than fighting fang and claw.

And then, like you said, there's all the good memories they had with Hornet when she was small! Which likely opened their mind to being a gentler protector anyways, and gave them a soft spot for looking after the little ones. That, paired with the headcanon that the Void is more social than PK or WL on account of the vessels all being born from blood of a dead god, and you have someone who's primed to look after any grubs or nymphs that need watching- a young god who failed in their task of caring for the mortals under their wings, and is still somewhat incapable of fighting due to their scars, but can certainly curl up around a nest and make sure nobody gets near it while the parents are out hunting. They're terrifying enough that any adult bug would give pause before approaching, and Hollow's big enough to be a jungle gym for the babies that don't understand what makes a bug or not just yet. The lanky nightmare void creature that was made to kill gods and was sired from the union of three Higher Beings is, in the eyes of a child, just as valid for climbing as any other piece of furniture around them. And Hollow loves them for it!

(also lmao I'm the opposite the entire reason why I can't stand children is because I have two younger siblings. I don't hate kids, not in the slightest, but when you're someone who gets socially drained by merely sharing a room with one person, can't stand loud noises, eye contact, and don't understand irrational behaviors, being around children is hell. Which is why I prefer to write about them instead of be around them, lol, and appreciate maternal/paternal people like Hollow- their patience and tolerance for all the crisises little people have to go through is nigh-godly in my eyes. Much love to those who can manage children!)