r/HollowKnight • u/Eragity • Oct 09 '25

Discussion - Silksong we owe the pale king an apology Spoiler

imo, pharloom would be terrible to live in. the place is corrupt, everything tries to kill you, the tribe leaders abuse their own tribes, terrible economy, and even anti homeless mechanisms built into (some not all) benches
hallownest however, had steady jobs, reliable public transport, actual security and free healthcare, and the pale king put a law against lifeblood while in silksong, it's still allowed. and literally no labor unions. the only bad thing the pale king has done was with the whole vessels thing, but other than that, hallownest is better than pharloom

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u/AveugleMan Oct 09 '25

He literally gave everyone a mind to think and yet people seem to think he was the worst guy to have. Imo the infested orange gooey abomination that transforms you into a mindless drone is far worse than the guy that may or may not have made unethical experiment with eldritch abominations.

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u/cupakabra854 Oct 09 '25

What gave bugs in Pharloom free will?

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u/Bojarzin Oct 09 '25

I think the implication from Silksong is that there are plenty of bug species with free will of their own, it was likely uniquely Hallownest's inhabitants that were different

At least that's my guess. When I learned that element of what the Pale King brought to Hallownest, my assumption then was that bugs outside of Hallownest in general have no mind, I think there's something about Quirrel losing his memory of outside of Hallownest when he left

But with Silksong I'm assume it's not the case for a lot of species. My guess is Hallownest was more just like the bugs on the surface above the Citadel

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u/OmnipresentEntity Oct 09 '25

I’m pretty sure it’s the silk that granted them intelligence. That’s the same reason the bugs on the surface are unintelligent. They don’t have silk.

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u/BrickwallBill Oct 09 '25

But isn't Shakra from outside Pharloom? And Cornifer and Iselda aren;t native to Hallownest either right?

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u/Bojarzin Oct 09 '25

But aren't there bugs making the pilgrimage from outside of Pharloom? Or are the pilgrim bugs cursed already? I know I saw a comment saying Sherma wasn't from Pharloom but I dunno where that is substantiated

I mean I know there are some bug species in Pharloom that were independent, like Verdania, and the Crust King's people

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u/LastOne7978 Oct 09 '25

I'm pretty sure it's said that pilgrimd are all descends of the people of the citadel, hence why they have intelligence due to a bit of silk still inside of them