3: Hornet is void confirmed I’m just going to be blunt on this one, Act 3 is a joke. It blatantly misrepresents the nature of Void and ultimately fails to innovate upon what we already knew about it. After Hornet’s activation of the Snare Setter backfires and triggers a Void outbreak across Pharloom, Hornet must set things straight by gathering powerful hearts from ancient leaders across the land. Wielding these hearts, Hornet can delve into her own memories to retrieve an Everbloom so she can reach Grandmother Silk and Lace beneath the void sea. That was my brief attempt to outline the story arc of this chapter. Frankly there really isn’t a lot to say about the story itself, as very little actually happens in this Act. Once again my primary concerns are in regard to the credibility of all this. Short answer is no, this would never happen. I’ll give some evidence for my longer one but first we should establish what Void is before anything else. Enter the definitive summary for Void: "No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.” The above quotation is the perfect description of Void. It is naturally formless. Without the touch of an outside will, it can never progress to any state of being beyond what it already is. Void has no desires beyond basic animalistic instincts, it will lash out against anything that approaches it including beings formed of itself. Void can neither communicate nor understand, nor does it require sustenance of any kind. It is little more than a power source waiting for its container. While Void was worshipped by cults dating back to times before Hallownest, we have no evidence of any higher being that commanded it. These qualities are what made Void so appealing to the Pale King. A malleable substance that could take on the shape of whatever it was contained in? Indeed, it was the discovery of a lifetime. Through rigorous experimentation, The Pale King would successfully create numerous lifeforms formed of Void. Oddly enough, Silksong attempts to put this work in a bad light. One of Hornet’s journal entries covering Kingsmoulds elaborates: “A false fly with a rune-etched shell, representing a tortured mix of soul and void. It is described as a crude construct from a fallen domain, and a fool's belief that void can be fashioned to do their bidding.” This is a bizarre take given by every metric; the void project was a resounding success. Void servants were obedient, effective, and powerful. Despite the tragedies that surround the history of the Hollow knights, there were no consequences resulting from any of the abuses these creatures endured. Are they trying to suggest that the void remnants would have sought revenge on the Pale King given the chance? If so, that would be stupid, because we have zero evidence of Void ever threatening Hallownest in the slightest. Void was a Bonafide miracle. If anything, Hornet should feel reluctant gratitude towards her father for engineering the very beings that would end up saving the world. Therefore, it should go without saying that this irrational claim has zero factual basis. Really the purpose of this journal entry is to provide slim justification for the nonsense this story pushes. When Hornet activates the Snare Setter, it does indeed ensnare Grandmother Silk, but in doing so it releases Void that claims the threads across Pharloom for itself. Every bug that was once controlled by Grandmother Silk now lies in the hands of Void. In essence, the game is trying to argue that a mindless pile of goo traveled the length of Pharloom and hijacked every existing connection between Grandmother Silk and the bugs of Pharloom all in the space of a single day. Did Team Cherry somehow forget that these bugs were being piloted by an active consciousness before? Even if Void could perform the feats I listed above, the infected bugs would be comatose zombies, not roaming threats. And how does the Void even spread anyway? Truly a pathetic finale for a pathetic story. 4: Lace’s Lost potential Lace is this game’s version of Hornet from the original Silksong. She shows up, spouts some story relevant dialogue, and goes on her merry way until the next encounter. She is the emotional middleman to the narrative of the game, a physical symbol of the cycle of neglect and mistreatment that characterizes the whole of Pharloom. My issues with her are a bit different than some of my other complaints, because I actually quite enjoyed her role in the story. Lace’s struggles to see herself as anything more than a broken-down pawn made for quite the fascinating angle to explore. The thing is though, there really wasn’t much of it to enjoy. Lace gets three appearances before Act 3, THREE! Two of those appearances amount to pretty much nothing, featuring only a couple lines of dialogue before abruptly wrapping up. The foundation for the entirety of Hornet and Lace’s relationship rests upon a single conversation no longer than 10 seconds! Team Cherry’s hope was for players to empathize with Lace’s struggles. Between her mommy issues and loneliness, Lace’s origins were designed to mirror the Hollow Knight’s own. Hornet sympathizing with this would step in to rescue her from her identity crisis and raging nihilism. While this concept sort of pans out, the lack of development really curtails its emotional impact in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier, two of the three conversations between these characters have no real importance. Also there is the moral component to consider. Hornet by this point of the story was working with the interests of Pharloom in mind, not just Lace’s. Shouldn’t Hornet hold Lace responsible for the Pilgrim blood she has surely spilt? Sordid backstory or not, she has upheld a corrupt theocracy and opposed you continuously. Sparing her could be considered an infringement of justice, and a betrayal of the citizens of Pharloom. Some clarity on her actual role would have helped immensely. Given that she is already a Pinocchio-Esque character, a deeper exploration of the ways she serves the Citadel would have done wonders in highlighting her feelings of powerlessness. All we really get a sense of is her existential angst. Silksong attempts to further this development in Act 3 with some additional little tidbits. It didn’t really work. There just isn’t enough chemistry between the two. It all stems from the lack of screentime and the relative irrelevance of Lace for the majority of the game. Silksong’s decision to push Lace as a main character for the final act comes across as forced more than inspired. Out of all the problems I have with this game and its story, Lace is definitely the most salvageable of them. Give her development, fill in the gaps of her backstory, detail her day-to-day relationship with Grandmother Silk. Give us the player a stronger reason to identify with her.