The Lore of Every Ending in Hollow Knight Explained

If you enjoy this type of content, I have 6 other Hollow Knight lore videos available for you to watch! Here's the playlist for your viewing pleasure: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7vmj1OCwEMNQmkSvO43Ung…

On the bright side, Team Cherry has said they don’t like the idea of a “true” ending and have worked on making all the endings fit with the start of the sequel if possible

In ending #4, the Shade Lord, formerly known as The Knight, or ghost, or... Well, not actually really formerly known as anything, really, bursts forth from the Godseekers body. With the newfound power of unifying the whole strength of the void itself under a single focus, it LASHES OUT in its GODLY RAGE, as it travels to one specific place, where all of its rage is directed: Kingdom's Edge, where it uses its incredible strength to bring the Primal Aspid population to extinction.

Personally, I think that the Knight, or Shade Lord, survives in ending 3 as a shade but not as the shell.

I really admire hornet, as according to my interpretation, she was fully aware that she might end up as a dreamer/ die if you go for the sealed siblings ending. She says multiple times throughout the game that we have a choice to make: we can either "supplant our birth cursed sibling" or destroy the Radiance. She only advises us to choose the latter once, because it's better for Hallownest. She assists us in the final fight even though she knows it could spell her doom depending on our choice. Can't wait to play as her in Silksong.

I love that Team Cherry is like 'all endings are canon, including the one where Hornet is eternally sealed in the Black Egg with you, despite the fact that she somehow winds up in Pharloom some time later!' lol.

Regarding the "Quirrell death vs Hornet orphan" question, Quirrell was actually quite old already anyway, and his dialogue and likely method of departure indicated that he was entirely ready to face his fate, maybe even amiable towards it. Quirrell's story, its ending included, was by no means a tragedy, and is only made such by the players who refuse to let him go. Momento mori, my friends.

I personally believe that in DNM, the reason the knight “dies” is actually because it had completed its mission and wanted to put both itself and its siblings to rest with. Because it was Lord of Shades, it could will the void to do anything. Including becoming still forever.

Even though a lot of people already know this, its beautiful to see people still uploading these videos for anyone else, also it can come in handy when silksong is released and new people want to play the first game before silksong

I am so full of feelings about Dream No More. The Pale King was so certain that the only way to contain the Radiance was with the singular best, strongest, purest vessel, so he isolated the Hollow Knight and discarded the rest of the vessels. But the Radiance is actually defeated when the Knight, the Hollow Knight, and Hornet help each other, with the rest of their siblings rising up to support them.

You just need to only kill monomon an lurien -Hornet is no longer an orphan -Quirrel is alive -Lurien won't have to be sad about his crush dying

The knight is a real embodiment of “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain”

There are select moments in this video where the music creates such a POWERFUL vibe and they ALL happen whenever the radiance is on screen. Nosk music is PERFECT for making her seem ominous and sinister and then the BANGER for when you show off her absrad form xD Genius and very appreciated

"There arent many bugs left to start society" Yeah now that weve killed them all lmao

14:10 I really like how is everyone in this image. Elderbug seeing Cornifer happily working in his maps, Dung Defender inside the fountain, Emilita Laughing at the Little Fool while Willoh is asking herself whether to eat him (probably?), Bretta in awe at Hornet, and Zote being Zote. Great video, well summarized, well explained and entertaining. Good job. By the way, that spin-off of Elderbug and Oro has become my new impossible dream: after the official release of Silksong, Team Cherry reveals they're working on a new adventure, Hollow Knight Savehome! :0

I'd actually disagree with the knight losing control of the void. This is mainly because of the godseeker mode, which is implied to take place after one of the pantheon of hallownest endings, as the godseekers acknowledge their past ignorance of your godliness and ask to be punished. Constantly referring to the knight as the God of gods. You can do whatever you want here, all charms, all everything and it's YOU, the knight, who is doing all of it. It's just that we really shouldn't assume that a being, divine from childbirth due to pale and abyssal heritage, who had to claw their way out of the abyss to have the privilege of being born, wandered the wastes aimlessly for most of their days, with their only real goal in life, sealing the radiance, having failed from the very start, driven to hallownest only by their own sibling's failure. Someone who has a strong enough distaste for the gods to shove the corpse of the pale king off his throne, someone who the world has thrown everything it has against them to kill them, now having killed the God they hate most and having ascended above and beyond what any mortal or God could imagine. Yeah I really don't think the knight is the baby a lot of people have assumed them to be. They literally have all the reasons to act the exact opposite of someone who is innocent of vice.

Thinking about ending 5 just appears to me that the flower is similar to the King's light. It seems to also appose Void, so its reaction to being affected by Void is either eviscerating it, or simply containing it in another place, trapping the Lord of Shades in Godhome. At least that's my theory on ending 5. There's probably some other, more logical theories. Also, I would find it pretty wholesome if Hornet shows The Hollow Knight all of Hallownest before she leaves. Or says "bye" to it in her own way.

is still kinda sad that we dont gonna see anymore the knight, i like to think that maybe, being free from his vessel the knight returns to his home where all his brothers are, resting till the end of time in the void

I feel like once the Knight gets the void Heart and all the stuff that leads up to it etc that it truly gains a will, which makes the sealed siblings ending even sadder in my mind bc we know it’ll eventually fail

15:47 there is actually a really easy answer here, quarrel gives the mask to monomon, and hornet isn't an orphan, heres the thing though, if you don't talk to quarrel, he doesn't die, he rather just sits there in the blue lake, so if you don't talk to him, he doesn't die, win win scenario 😊