Don't Mind Me. Need This For Reference.

This is handy. Remember this ya'll! It's a life hack!

You know that thing where you see a gorgeous view (left) and try to take a picture of it, but your phone camera is a joyless fucking nihilist who refuses to see the beauty in anything and only sees this (right)

“Thinking about compression from a side view”

Source: Anime Private School on Twitter

What is with the Dreamers' Houses?!?! Part 4.0 : What We Know that We Don't Know

At last! We have analyzed all the Dreamers' houses!

One last thing about the design of the Dreamer's houses and how they reflect each Dreamer's character. Throughout this analysis, we have been discussing what we can tell about the Dreamer's character from what we see, but we have yet to discuss about what we don't see.

With Herrah, we see the entirety of her den while we are barred from most of the Village. As such, we can guess more about Herrah's character than her people. Though I must admit that there is a bunch we can’t see due to being part dragon and part plant, but not part spider. Which means we can’t climb to the ceiling. But we DO see most of her house compared to most of the Dreamers. How this translates to the essay is all that we don’t see of Herrah is because we don’t have access to Weaver culture.

But alas, I still must guess how much we don’t know we don’t have access to in Herrah’s den. We must be missing more than Hornet's baby clothes!

With Monomon, we can guess that there is more to the Achieves, such as the classrooms, but that is a mere guess so we cannot comment on Monomon's character in that regard. But with Lurien…

We are canonically barred from seeing the entire Spire. 

The green arrow is pointing to another hallway which we cannot enter in game. We know that this is another hallway as the wallpaper design is blurred out due to distance, unlike the wallpaper right next to Little Knight.

For reference, this screenshot was taken right after you successfully got past the part which requires Monarch Wings and takes you up into Lurien's Spire. AKA. Right at the bottom of the Spire.  Which means THERE ARE ENTIRE SECTIONS OF THE WATCHER'S SPIRE RIGHT UP TO THE BALLROOM WHICH WE DON'T SEE! Check this map here!

Yellow marks the Door on the second level. Blue is the entire area that we are barred from seeing.

This is not the only section we are barred from seeing.

The Red is the entire section of the Spire which we don't see. Remember, we only go up the elevator to Lurien which is reflected in the map.

Now, do you remember these hallway pictures I showed you? The ones where Team Cherry showed 3-D in a 2-D world?

In order to achieve this effect, that window must be some ways away from the main hallway where we are standing.  Far enough to create enough distance for a hallway by the window. Meaning there is a WHOLE ANOTHER HALLWAY leading who knows where!

There is another possible section of the Spire that we are unable to access.

These appear to be supporting the Watcher's Spire. Now, they could either be pillars and thus inaccessible to anyone, not just the player. Or, they are other towers supporting the main tower to the Spire, which means that not only is there entire section worth the height of the main Spire which we can't see, but whole towers as well!

Again, this is speculation. If anything, these towers outside Lurien's Spire are most likely supports for his own Spire as something needs to support the weight of the tallest spire in the City.

And we haven’t even touched the rooms belonging to the servants!

Remember this?

From: Hollow Knight: How To Defeat The Watcher Knights

This hiddie hole belongs to the rope that holds the chandelier which we can drop on one of the Watcher Knights, dropping the 6 bosses to 5 bosses.

How many hidden corners and passages are in the Watcher’s Spire? How many are we unaware of? Does every chandelier have a little hiddie hole like this one?  Did Lurien ever use one of these servant passages and hiddie holes himself?

Now what about the Watcher Knights themselves?

You cannot tell me that these guys lived in Lurien’s ballroom. Where were their barracks? Where did they keep their weapons and gear? Where did they train? Surely Lurien wouldn’t outsource his Watcher Knights’ gear and training from his Spire, opening himself to possible assassination attempts? This bug had 15 Watcher Knights. I think he was concerned about getting attacked. So where do these Watchers sleep, train, and relax?  We have half an entire Spire unseen.

Another question regarding Lurien’s servants. Remember how Lurien has a butler? Depending on how much Team Cherry wants to draw on medieval history, Lurien’s butler could have a different responsibility than modern day butlers. Modern butlers handle everything in the house: managing the daily operations of a household, keeping inventory of household supplies, maintain the cleanliness of the estate, etc.

Note how I said modern butlers. In medieval times, all those duties belonged to the head steward. The butler had a different job. He was the most trusted servant and confident of the head of house. He had to be in order to be trusted with the keys to the wine cellar! Or as it was called, the buttery. If Lurien’s butler had this job, then where is Lurien’s wine cellar? Where are the kitchens?

Of course, this doesn’t impact Lurien’s character too much as we don’t imagine him cooking. And we need to beeline towards Lurien to break the seals and open the Black Egg Temple, so we can’t take a detour towards the kitchens.

Doesn’t change the fact I would love to see Team Cherry or the fans develop the Dreamers’ houses more, especially Lurien’s Spire.

All the locations mentioned above beg a serious question: how much of Lurien's character do we not know simply because we cannot see his entire house? If everything that we do see speaks of a fortune worth of information, how much more is hiding from us?

Now take this to Herrah and Monomon. How much of them do we not know? What about their interactions with each other? Team Cherry had originally planned to give us individual boss fight rooms for each Dreamer. How much of Herrah, Monomon, and Lurien's characters will we never know because we never saw those rooms?

With that, I shall end this essay and leave you to your thoughts! It has been a long journey and I hope you dear reader learned something new. Please reblog any of your thoughts or ideas inspired by this essay!

If you wish to read more of the Essay, click one of these links below.

Part 1.0: Herrah's Den : Here

Part 2.0: Monomon's Archives: Here

Part 3.0: Lurien's Spire: Here

Part 3.25: Lurien's Spire: Windows and Colors: Here

Part 3.5: Even More of Lurien's Spire. Here

Part 3.7: What is WRONG with Lurien's Spire?: Here

Part 3.8: Even, even More of Lurien's Spire: Secret Room: Click here

Part 3.9 Watcher Knight Boss Room! Here

Link to essay on Ao3: Here

Perfectly NOT Fine: Chapter One

Hollow Knight Fan Comic: Traditional Art

BLURB:

Instead of Deepnest, the Knight went up through the City of Tears to escape. What would happen but being found and adopted by none other than the Watcher himself.

Tell me, what happens now? After all, the Knight has a twin in the White Palace down below....

PROLOGUE: https://www.tumblr.com/violetdawn001/738374720772292608/script-out-of-nowhere-you-came-needing-someone-to?source=share

CHAPTER ONE:

SCRIPT: In the bottomost of Hallownest, there lies the White Palace, Where within ruled the Pale King, shinning and wise. I served this most glorious king, my son, as his Watcher. As his servant, I gave him everything. My service's reward was the entrusting of duties, treasures, and secrets. A reward only given to Her Majesty the Queen.

One day, His Majesty called me aside, desiring to share his secrets. O my son, I had no fantom of the darkness he would share. The only thought in my mind was how I could serve. After all, my liege lord needed all the help he could gather to defeat the Blazing Light.

His majesty was so eager, I recall, to share his secrets. I expected the project to be a grand scheme, a mighty warrior, or a secret weapon. But the last thing I expected to see...was you. A you that was cold, stiff, and lifeless while still drawing breath. Speechless, I observed this test that was required. Clueless, for I left you at our Spire.

What kind of test was this? Whose loyalty was tested? The father or the son? The only reward one could hope to earn was the approval of one's liege lord...

Somehow, the test was passed...but what His Majesty said and did surprised me more. "This 'construct', so capable, will be the vessel to seal away the Blazing Light." "YOU need not be so horrified at such a small thing." The king assured me.

I was horrified, my king not at What...but FOR WHO.

PROLOGUE:

https://www.tumblr.com/violetdawn001/738374720772292608/script-out-of-nowhere-you-came-needing-someone-to?source=share

COVER:

https://www.tumblr.com/violetdawn001/738375072551682048/part-1-prologue?source=share

CHAPTER TWO:

https://www.tumblr.com/violetdawn001/741443039477858304/perfectly-not-fine-chapter-2?source=share

a comic about different types of storytellers

Just saving this for future reference...

I have seen some people dont know how to install mods, or how to use them. so i wanted to write a guide how to install them and make your game mod ready, because there are so many great mods, which enhance a already great game

Download Smapi, over on https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/2400 and extract it. this site requires a account, but its where most stardew mods are. the premium subscription is unnecessary, since 99% of mods will be instantly downloaded

double click whatever file corresponds to your system. i will wirte this for windows. if you use linux, follow the onscreen examples. for windows, press 1, enter, 1, enter and copy the address you see on screen which starts with "c:\" including the ""

open your steam library and rightclick stardew in the sidebar, press properties and paste the address you just copied in the launch options and close the window.

to add mods, right click stardew in your sidebar again, but press browse local files. now open the new "mods" folder. to make it easier to find, right click that folder and press "pin to quick access"

download mods and enjoy the game. go back to the "nexus mods" site and download any mods you like. if you want to start with peak, download stardew valley expanded and its required mods. one of the few mods you have a wait to download. just copy the mod into the mods folder and extract it.

a few recommendations: generic mod config menu and ui info suite

have fun!

.

Very well done analysis of Adaman.

Adaman the Symbol of Time

 p(An Analysis on the character design of Adaman from Pokemon Legends of Arceus and it’s relation to time and art history.)

A lot of the characters form PLA are similar in terms of design. The characters that do not follow the standard hoodies, tunics, guild jumpsuits ,and kimonos have a lot of interesting art history associated with them.  I love Adaman’s design in particular since he is literally a symbol of time. 

Well…isn’t this obvious since he is the Diamond Clan leader and associated with Dialga? Yes, but there is a lot more subtle aspects to his design that link him with a specific form or Japanese Art.  But let’s first look at the obvious references to Dialga .

In Adaman’s design they use a lot of blues and and silver that you can see shared with Dialga.  They also use the Diamond clan symbol that is shaped to look like Dialga’s chest gem repeatedly in the coat and accessories.  Adaman’s coat/jacket is most likely a nod to the Japanese Haori.  It is even tied with a fancy beaded Himo chord to keep it closed. If you look at the shoes you can see in the concept art that even the bottom of them are supposed to look like Dialga’s feet in their regular form and on the top of the shoe like the legendary Pokemon’s face.  All this information is very interesting and nice seeing how the character and the Pokemon are related even thematically.  

However, it’s crossed your mind (even briefly) that Adaman’s design is not directly one to one with Dialga. He isn’t a Dialga gijinka. There are elements and colors that Adaman uses that the legendary Pokemon does not.  We can brush it off as Adaman having a flair and his importance as a Diamond Clan leader to set him apart. But this is where it gets interesting. His outfit is generally just fashionable and we can choose to look at it like that on a surface level.  But if you look deeper you see a more symbolic meaning.

Adaman is Kintsugi . What is that? Kintsugi is a Japanese art technique that repairs pottery using lacquer and gold dust.  Adaman also has similar gold veins running through his clothing.  For someone who is so “put together” looking, why would you intentionally create jagged and uneven elements other than for aesthetic? This is because for my understanding, this is yet another way the character designer chose to express Adaman’s connection to time.

Kintsugi is a beautiful form of art and philosophy.  The idea is not to hide the cracks and flaws, but to turn it into something more beautiful and strong.  It represents the passage of time and a documentation of the harsh conditions in which we pass through. But ultimately it is a celebration of survival and growth.  It is also a metaphor for embracing your flaws and imperfections.

One translation defines the word  kintsugi as golden “golden seams”. So, Adaman is kind of a symbol of kintsugi pottery and philosophy.  The part about this design that confused me the most was his hair since it’s also not standard colored and is quite unique. But I realized that if we are equating him to pottery, the hair might be colored that way to imitate pottery glazes (the stuff they put on ceramics to give it color.)

On another interesting note, Adaman has lots of signs of past injury. We see this with the bandages on his arms and hands, the cut brow which is a remnant of injury and survival, and then the very intentional jagged gold claw marks on his back.  The back gold lines are sharp looking and contrast with the rest of the designs which is fluid and rounded.  It’s bringing attention to the marks.

Image sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

We can interpret a lot from this design. It also raises many questions. The jagged golden marks and Adaman’s bandaged arms implies that he has been “damaged” or “broken” in some sense. This could be taken literally or symbolically. We don’t know what happened to him.  Maybe he was attacked by an alpha Pokemon and survived a severe injury that he now incorporates into this aesthetic as a way to show that he was able to come back from that.  Or maybe it’s referring to his leadership as a young Diamond Clan leader and the mistakes he made and had to learn from. 

So in conclusion. From what I can understand , if we were to wrap up all the motifs, Adaman’s design ultimately seems to just represent a passage of time. Breakage and repair are just proof of time passing and represent history and life. And I think that is really cool.  

These are all my speculations and none of it is canon you can disagree if you want. These are just things I have observed and made note of that I believe makes the character far more interesting and fleshed out.  There is a lot of deep and meaningful things you can pull from this if you want to expound further through fanart and fanfic.  

EDITS/NOTES:

So a lot of people asked if the arm and hand wraps are for fighting. They aren’t. In every form of fighting and martial arts that involves wrapping(taping) your knuckles, you wrap between each finger and around your knuckles several times to cushion them.  You do their for wrist stability, prevent injury, and joint restriction.  Failing to wrap your hands correctly will result in fractures, broken fingers and knuckles, and metal carpet boss.  Not only are Adaman’s knuckles exposed when he clenches his fists, there is no wrapping supporting his wrists on the left hand.  If he is wrapping them to fight, he is doing a very bad job at it.

I did research on this before writing the initial post and came to this conclusion, but I guess I’ll add it now for those that had questions.

Another interesting note is that the Diamond Clan symbol also looks like a stylized version of the characters for gold.  This same character also does appear in the work kintsugi.

Adaman’s name is interesting too since it’s not really a common name.  In fact, it seems to be a play on word “adamant” which usually refers to someone who is not willing to change their mind or opinion.  HOWEVER , Adamant is an archaic diamond found in Greek/Roman mythology.  It is a bit of a legendary diamond of sorts. The name is derived from the Greek word for diamond. “adámas”.

If you remember, in the Diamond and Pearl games you can use the “Adamant Orb” to increase the dragon/steel type moves of Dialga by 20% if they hold it. In Pokemon Legends Arceus you can get the “Adament Crystal from Adaman.  This can be used to switch Dialga between Origin and normal form.  

Also random interesting thought. The diamond clan settlement is located in the crimson mirelands. Out of the different areas, this one has the most ideal conditions to create pottery clay next to bodies of water (Lake valor) , the scarlet bog, and the mountainous areas surrounding the settlement. Very similar to the Mashiko and Hagi pottery villages in japan.

What is an Artfight?

Something to have fun with!

Thank you, Cupcakeshakesnake, for giving me permission to use your designs of Lurien the Watcher and his butler! The end results looks amazing!

P.S.

If you want to check out LittleSnaketail's work, here are links to the artist's profiles!

DeviantArt: Here

Tumblr: Here

What's one thing from your childhood you'd love to do again if given the chance?

Considering that I still draw dragons, write stories, and play Pokemon, this is a hard question...

I say...go on roller coasters. Haven't been on one in years.

Very well thought out headcanons.

do u have any headcanons about hk characters and spellwork (who can use what, what's possible and what isn't, whatever) :V?

take all this with a pinch of salt as i am typing from my phone in the back of a van and i am very sleepy

anyone could learn to spellcast with Soul! in the same way anyone could become an astrophysicist. most people do not.

the Soul Sanctum, and the Pale King's use of Soul spellwork, was considered highly innovative. mostly spellcasting is something only a few people can do/bother learning, but in Hallownest the King encourages it and the Soul Sanctum is dedicated to honing the craft, which makes Hallownest weirdly ahead of the game compared to a lot of places. soul scholars were kind of like the educated elite. but also wizards. people talked

you could simplify and say you have two main schools of thought: the scientific approach (Soul Sanctum, Pale King) and the spiritual approach (Snail Shamans, Moth Tribe). the two ways of thinking are not mutually exclusive and often overlap though. both can be used to great effect

there are bugs out there who have done crazy high level things like the Soul Sanctum in less scientifically-themed contexts, definitely. this tier of fanatical spell meddling is rareish though

Soul is the word many bugs use for the life force inside all living things. and yeah, basically! it's not exactly your sense of self though that's different

Soul and Void are effectively infinite. harnessing Soul to cast spells involves channelling it through certain means and generally you only have certain limited reserves to draw from at a time (see Soul Vessels for example)

Soul Master and the rest of the scholars were fixated on surpassing that limit. kind of a "what if humans used 100% of their brain" situation

if you actually found a way to use all of one bug's Soul at once it would be like splitting the atom - incredible amounts of energy released at once, even from an average bug who isn't a spell user in the first place. Mistakes and Follies collapsed into themselves long before they got anywhere near that level. it's basically just not sustainable or doable. (soul master voice: but is it)

spellwork is also kind of like using a certain muscle a lot. if you cast a lot of spells it'll get easier for you. if you're inherently a gifted type who has a lot of potential for spellwork, but never use it or pursue it, you'll still be pretty bad at it and get tired quickly compared to someone with no inherent ability who practices every day

Void is basically like its own version of Soul. the two are different but if you scanned a Void being and found no traces of Soul that doesn't mean they're soulless, it means they have their own version. you're looking at it. it's Void

the average bug does not contain any traces of Void by nature and thus spellwork with Void is rare and very poorly understood. those ancient bugs who worshipped the Void however would have had some in their system. how? don't ask questions you don't want answers to

once upon a time, all Void is/was, in all traces across the world, part of one unit. once in the dawn of time etc etc. the world has changed since but it's fundamentally all the same to itself.

spellwork with Void is essentially using Soul to bind and command some Void to do what you want it to do. this is why shade spell upgrades cost Soul, it's the Soul making it do that thing.

mess around with Void too much if you're a bug and it will do very strange things to the body. it stains shell, it leaks from the joints and the eyes, it puts strange thoughts in your head. Soul is easier, safer, and better understood, and also isn't partly echoing with its own collective sentience.

not that this kind of thing deters a Snail Shaman. pretty sure if a Snail Shaman was given half the chance they'd learn to spellcast with anything. magnets. active plutonium. whatever. mind your business

if you know how to see Soul inside a body, and concentrate, living things generally appear as opaque glowing white cutouts. the Soul inside a living creature is saturated to the point of looking like a white shape in space. you can't see this usually because their body is in the way and it's sort of, tied into their cells or whatever

you can use spellwork to do pretty much anything, if you're clever. the sky is the limit. flashy stuff like attack spells, subtle stuff like enhancing your senses or letting yourself see things not usually visible to the eye, defying gravity, Whatever. almost anything you can think of. the main barrier is that it's difficult and taxing. the average bug doesn't bother

oh god i haven't even done Dream. okay a short rundown: Dream is different again. it's about the self, about thoughts, about the conscious and subconscious, about the mind. you don't so much spellcast with Dream as just kind of... manipulate and explore what's around you. connect with others. influence, sometimes. mostly understand. it's not technically spellcasting though and this post is getting long so i'll leave it there for now sdffgjk