#also thinking about my gijinka for him and pk | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ganymedesclock · 1 year

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Hi, I've got a Hollow Knight question for you. How much do you think PK actively designed his small body, vs just wanting certain criteria and the rest just sorta happening? Also, how much do you think the anatomy resembles normal bug anatomy vs Wyrm anatomy vs entirely unique anatomy?

I think PK had full control over what he would become within the limits of physiology (so, he couldn't, say, have had his head fully detached from his body) but he didn't understand the ramifications very well until later.

PK, as far as we can tell, is an extremely detail-obsessive individual. He's not caught by surprise by the features of his creations, but he is often dangerously wrong about what this implies about their more ephemeral traits. Considering he is his own work, I think this applies to him.

So, he chose to become smaller- and probably lowballed it intentionally because he did not want to tower over others. (I'm a slightly boring person who doesn't think he minds being short, though his ego wouldn't be untouchable in that subject, the fact that he's "actually" godzilla-sized in origin and chose to leave that life voluntarily behind suggests that he doesn't exactly have hangups about needing to be taller)

He chose to redefine his bladed mouthparts as a sharpened crown, and to give himself a Face, that bugs would like to look at and find familiar. He chose to- at least in my interpretations of what lies under his cloak- give himself multiple flexible, dexterous graspers.

As far as anatomy goes, I'm going to share this older (warning for bug mandibles) art I did of a possible gijinka design, because that gets at about what I feel like his features would read as to mundane bug and beast.

Basically, he has some unusual features but a lot of those things are flattering or pretty from a certain angle; he has a very smooth, graceful gait (almost floating, without distinct strides) he has a very bright, shiny exoskeleton (literally shining) without blemishes or asymmetry, he has long horns- which are apparently a sought-after trait in Hallownest's society given the journal description of the Husk Hornhead. This is why his gijinka form as I drew it is, superficially at least, a handsome swishy fantasy elf-wizard-looking type. He is literally a piece of art sculpted by his own hands and his eye for aesthetics is not only obvious but pretty clearly lines up with what the average layperson considers beautiful- look at how nice the White Palace looks!

Granted, though, I think that he also exists deeply in the uncanny valley. We're not used to seeing people who are beautiful the way a ceramic doll might be, and these kinds of beauty removed from humanity are a common subject in horror for a reason.

And because I can't ever really separate my read on PK from a sense of compassion that this was a very miserable creature, this is where my personal read leans- he can stay on the "pretty, desirable" side of the uncanny, but only with effort and restricting his behaviors a lot. Hence me doing a gijinka take of him with a four-point mouth; imagine negotiating those hinges to make a sufficiently Nice, Human, Politically Polite smile. It'd be so difficult to manage, especially while speaking, that it'd be far more likely for him to do much what he's shown to do in canon- become a recluse that avoids people so the times you have to make a public appearance are a minimum and a few people are initiated to your circle where they get to see and deal with you all the time.

Part of this would even be rather simple and straightforwards- Hallownest is a setting where predator and prey dynamics coexist fully with sapience. There is a nonzero concern any stranger might eat you, and this probably factors into how warlike or predatory features are considered- size, claws and fangs. PK's mouthless plate of a face and seemingly smooth body as projected by his robes would seem doll-like in another sense- utterly bereft of predatory warning flags. His head-body proportions and sleek, unblemished appearance would invoke a child and we know the creatures of Hallownest care for their children by default- even the more brutal societies like Deepnest or the Mantis Lords.

But this utter lack of predation is an illusion. In reality, PK is not only a living organism actively feeding on worship and devotion, but the organism in question is a colossal entity whose true "face" is nothing but mouth and fangs, and a thickly armored body covered with spikes. Blades, and spikes, and methodical surgical torture are major motifs repeated throughout the palace and in other environments of PK's power. By implication, every part of him is a blade and him being easy on the eyes is the way that a parade sword can glitter so invitingly that any kid might want to pick it up, but if that parade sword is made with good steel and its twinkling gemstones real diamonds, it could still slice you to ribbons and probably won't seem so inviting afterwards.

A friend of mine @betterbemeta pointed out that my writings of him in Refuge For Resolve give him more than a passing resemblance to the figure of the King In Yellow, and I've always liked that one.

#Hollow Knight #The Pale King #readmore #mm been a while since I shrimp meta'd

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dumbbanana · 2 years

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I'd love to hear your theories about Lurien's personality and his relationship with the king ^^

Hello hello! Thank you for the ask and so sorry for the late reply (have had a chaotic few weeks)! Oh boy oh boy! I get to talk about Lurien and my headcanons! 🤩

Quick warning that one of the pics I drew below might be off putting to some since it has some eyes in it. Please do ask to tag if necessary!

I'll put my ramble below the cut (It's long!)

Aside from being the grumpy alcoholic I depict him as, I like to think he's one of those people (bugs? you get what I mean) that doesn't usually say much but commands a lot of respect whereever he is. When he does have something to say, he rarely sugarcoats it and will often be rather blunt about it, unless he decides more tact is necessary for the situation.

Since I partially based my gijinka/human design for him off Sherlock Holmes (mostly the Inverness cape he wears), I usually headcanon him as having the Sherlock-like obsevation skills and the unsociable personality that comes with it 😆On top of this, I headcanon his bug-self to be a dragonfly! One of the things that entrances me about them is that they're said to have really good vision. This video (tw: bugs) that i watched shows someone firing a pea past a dragonfly, looking at it in slow motion, the dragonfly is show to move it's head to look at the flying pea, decides "nah, this isn't worth my time" and then goes back to what it was doing. So, I like to think Lurien has a similar attitude during most interactions, though he is not oblivious to how he may come off to others, he simply doesn't care.

He isn't grumpy without reason though. I headcanon him being something akin to Head of Secret Service and a key advisor to the Pale King (PK) and his court so he is a very busy man!

I think he genuinely cares about the kingdom and it's people, having clawed his way from the bottom rungs of society to his current position. He wants to make the world a better place but has found that even in his station/role as the Watcher, fierce politics and bureaucracy have prevented him from making many of the changes he originally aspired to make - one of the many reasons he drinks and smokes heavily. He does do what he can to help out though and I imagine him to be the kind of person who anonymously makes generous donations to the city's struggling orphanages and hospitals.

Another theory I have is that he's a very politically savvy person and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty get the job done, only resorting to more ruthless methods once all peaceful alternatives have been exhausted and it's clear to him there is absolutely no other option and/or an innocent life is in danger. He has a disdain for people who abuse their positions and power but can and will efficiently beat them at their own game if he is pushed to do so.

It's a different story if they decide to make it personal, however.

On a more positive side of headcanons for his personality, I enjoy the idea that loyalty is one of his strongest traits. He is loyal to PK, Hallownest and whichever handful of individuals he'd count as his close friends. He's the kind of friend who will always stands by you, and move heaven and earth for you. But he would also tell you to your face if he thinks you're being an asshole and/or a shitty friend. He's a powerful ally and a formidable enemy.

That being said, although Monomon and Herrah are his best friends, he'd probably sooner throw himself off the top of his spire than straight up telling them that he cares about them (not that they don't already know).

Regarding his relationship with PK: I'll preface this with a short lalala that I think of PK as a somewhat self-righteous ruler, having installed himself as the king of Hallownest and having this cult of personality thing around himself (like, there were idols of him, his symbol is everywhere, everyone reveres him as the beloved king, that weird text on the fountain in Ancient Basin that basically said "give the King all your money", being described as King and Creator etc.). He's a powerful being, god and king and he knows it.

Earlier I mentioned that Lurien doesn't hold back when speaking his mind and PK is no exception to this. Contrary to the "uwu my king <3" bootlicker personality I see most people give him, I find it fun to think that although he acknowledges PK's god status (where his cut dialogue seems to imply that he has witnessed PK's true form) he simply… doesn't care.

The best way I can describe it is that he saw PK's true form and went "Ok great, you're a god. Nice to know. Now will you do your job and be a ruler? No, it's not the same - you're thinking like a god, you have to be a king. FOR FUCK'S SAKE MUST I DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?! Oh yeah? You want total obedience? Then go ahead and smite me. Use your light to instill total love for you. WHY NOT? Make an example of me and everyone will fall in line. DO IT." followed by torrents of swear words as he walks away and PK has blasted a nearby wall.

In short, Lurien would be one of a few people who can (and will) say "No" to PK and still walk away with his head attached to his shoulders. PK has the benefit of godhood - if something bad happens, PK couuld simply smite it, abandon Hallownest and/or create a new kingdom and he wouldn't have to think about it again. Lurien isn't immortal or a god and thus, approaches and understands problems in a way that an immortal god might not.

He's not completely cynical and does place a lot of faith in PK and vice versa but their long time friendship/relationship/acquaintance is shadowed by the knowledge that if PK didn't have his god-like status and powers, it would be people like Lurien who would be in power.

I personally do not romantically ship PK and Lurien (but I don't mind if others do) since I think of their relationship as very close with lots of trust but has major issues such as major power imbalance, clashing values and attiudes to list a few things.

I also headcanon Lurien as not being interested in romance (or the other thing) so any attempts to court him even after he's tried to explain and let the interested party down peacefully would simply result in

Ahaha wow that was a lot (my English Literature teacher wishes I could write this much about anything).

If you read all that, thank you! I have been wanted to talk about stuff like this for a while but have always been to awkward. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so!

I hope you have a lovely day! 🥃

#ask #mostlydeadallday #hollow knight #lurien the watcher #hk gijinka #long post #tw: eye horror #<- don't know what the right tag is #please let me know!

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4tlas-hyper · 2 years

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SORRY I BUMPED THE BUTTON AS I WAS GOING TO SAY

TO KEEP THE TRAIN GOING: what are your ones on pk or the white lady?

I love talking about HK for long periods of time, so how about I do both?

The Pale King:

Sexuality Headcanon: Pan, anybody can get it. There isn't a seperate section for it but he's polyamorous as well.

Gender Headcanon: Demiboy, same as Grimm, only he has even less of a grasp on what being male is supposed to mean.

OTP: Pale Nightmare of course, which actually started out as a notp funnily enough, but then I accidentally read a fic for it and ended up falling in love with this ship. They have a fun and intetesting dynamic with each other, and it can make sense in the canon story(explaining why it does will probably need an entire post all on it's own because I have a lot to say). Secondary ships include Wyrmroot and Palewatcher.

BroTP: Monomon, the two of them are sleep deprived science dorks and will fuel each other's dumb ideas. He has a similar thing with Hegemol only to a lesser degree.

NOTP: Aside from the obvious ones, the Radiance. Enemies to lovers shit can work, but it's difficult to pull off even with characters who have a potentially interesting dynamic with each other, these two don't have that going for them. When one of the Radiance's main motivations is her hatred and thirst for revenge focused primarily at PK, I can't see her changing her ways and I especially can't see her falling for him. The closest I can see these two is very begrudging allies and even that might be a stretch.

Random Headcanon: He can play the Piano really fucking well, or at least he used to be able to, he slowly lost his skill as the void ate away at his hands.

General Opinion: Every insult I could possibly throw at him, but with "(affectionate)" right after it. He is a dumbass, he did a lot of horrible shit, but I can appreciate his sorry ass more than I like to admit.

Song: I physically cannot pick just one song for him, because my taste in music is just his whole aesthetic. I'll get the main ones out of the way first, "Touch Tone Telephone" by Lemon Demon, "Little Dark Age" by MGMT are both songs that I feel are generally associated with him anyway(I know TTT is, not as sure about LDA). And for a couple others I have "Choice" by Jack Stauber and "Toes" by Glass Animals.

The White Lady:

Sexuality Headcanon: She's a Bisexual that leans towards Lesbian, and like her husband, she is also polyamorous.

Gender Headcanon: I want to say Demigirl, but I feel like that's mostly my own confusion regarding gender projecting itself(agender here), so instead I'm going to say Androgynous(aka the midpoint between male and female). Pronouns and presentation do not equal gender, she comes across as very feminine but I feel like nature gods should be representitive of all nature has to offer, including through their gender.

OTP: Wyrmroot is canon and absolutely adorable. I love that the two of them are so devoted to each other yet that doesn't bind them to monogamy, they allow and even encourage each other to find potential partners outside of their marriage. WL/Dryya is also kinda cute but I don't feel super passionately anout it as some others do. I also kinda want to mention WL/Unn as a potential pair, I haven't seen much if any content for them and I feel like it coukd make sense.

BroTP: Grimm as I've said before, and oddly enough I imagine she'd be good friends with Herrah. I have read fanfic interactions between the two and that's probably where that's coming from, I don't really know how to explain why I think they'd get along, they just would.

NOTP: Barring the obvious once again, I'm going to have to say Grimm. I don't know, the two would be good friends, but it wouldn't go any further than that I feel, not just because I headcanon Grimm to be gay. Both of them pair extremely well with PK, just not with each other in my opinion.

Random Headcanon: This only applies to my Gijinka AU because hair obviously isn't a factor in canon, but she loves to braid PKs hair(which he keeps long to accommodate, and because he thinks long hair makes him look more regal), delicately weaving flowers into it and everything. It doubles as a sneaky way to get him to take care of himself better because he'd make a genuine effort to keep his hair as healthy as he can so she can easily work with it.

General Opinion: Big wife, plant mom, very pretty woman, I love her.

Song: Almost everything by Amarante gives me the whimsical nature-loving vibes that I associate with her, but "Mountains" and "The Other Side" if I had to limit myself.

#hollow knight #the pale king #the white lady #hollow knight hc #ask game #thanks for the ask!

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ganymedesclock · 2 years

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I have a small question about your gijinka of PK. His face has a crack on pictures that show him in the post-HK events of your fic, but didn't he wear a mask at the time of his death? or was he maskless since he was pretty much alone in the end and there was no one around? because I'm wondering now wether or not Ghost bashed him so hard that they scarred him even with it on o_0

But I can understand if it was a design choice or something more symbolic in that nature! your design is one of my favorite ones and it captures him very well.

...Whoops. honestly, that's a great question. I can't say those headcanons of gijinkaverse developed entirely separately- I did have the specific idea of remnant PK having lost his mask, but not thinking about the specific state Ghost would've found his body in.

Metatextually, I wanted to include the scar because I have this sort of rule about canon divergence where a character lives through something that killed them- I always want it to leave a mark. If I'm respecting canon enough to stick most of the way to it, then that was a big moment- it was a major occurrence in that character's life even if- in my version- it didn't end them.

Also, I think it's very poetic for someone whose obsessions with purity, perfection, and image, a person heavily associated with masks, and with also, behaving aloofly or cruelly and repressing- to some degree- a part of them that had misgivings- to have to survive with a facial scar. Not as in, "this is punishment for your vanity"- facial disfigurement isn't a punishment for anything and Ghost, at the point they knock PK's body off its throne, aren't really seeking to punish what's left of him- they are facing the person who hurt them that much, and realizing there's nothing left of him to demand, extort, or strike at really.

So here's my hot take on this:

PK's body makes an unsettlingly hollow noise in canon when it hits the ground. He sounds, emptied out (and this is in fact where I started to get inspiration for void wound PK) and in canon his face doesn't actually crack until he hits the ground- so it's likely Ghost didn't really hit him with intent to scar as much as at that point he was basically a desiccated mummy shell of himself and going face-first into the floor at even a relatively low speed from taking a couple of good impacts to the torso cracked his face. Sort of like dropping a ceramic doll off a shelf. At which point, wearing a mask or not wouldn't help him- if anything the mask might have made it worse by removing the amount of give his face would have if it hit the floor itself.

(I like the idea he had it at that time, because that would mean shoving his then-inert body off the throne would be, most likely, the first time in their entire life Ghost had actually seen his face. Something about the barren vulnerability of realizing this specter of vast power and pain haunting you for years just being too pathetic to hurt you anymore, and it's not really closure, but it's a kind of grim understanding without forgiveness)

So I guess it is a little symbolic! I draw PK with the scar in all versions of remnantverse not as a symbol of Ghost's anger nearly as much as it is that his own obsessions made PK impossibly brittle- it's sort of symbolic of how he's now completely incapable of living up to his own standards, and is faced with the prospect of if he wants to die and preserve them- or survive, and discard those standards, when it was by those standards he justified ruining the lives and relationships of just about everyone he even potentially cared about, and admitting that was never going to be good for anything means he has a hell of a debt to address, and even without any other party specifically hounding him for retribution, he knows it.

#Hollow Knight #The Pale King #honestly I kind of really like thinking of Ghost's POV towards PK and the like #palpable anticlimax of the white palace #the rhythms of the game have trained you VERY WELL at this point; it gives you all of the boss fight signals #and then there's not even the catharsis of Zote in the colosseum #it's just. empty. bleak.#you're exhausted from all the goddamn platforming and frustrated and it's just like #'alright. is that my prize? is that what's here to be taken? fine. I'm leaving'#I don't think Ghost forgave PK there and I don't think they necessarily ever will #but it's that line from Psychonauts #'they're too pathetic to hurt you anymore'#letting go of... the memory? the idea?#which. especially considering what the Seer says about remembering things #and that despite everything she still feels some grief over Radiance #the implicit 'I'm done with you. I don't care anymore'#is a lot more of an execution

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ruthlesslistener · 3 years

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Great headcanon dealer please tell me what Ogrim’s weird hobbies would be (apart from building statues of shit)

Oh he’s got a lot of ‘em. Ogrim himself strikes me as the type to be the fun yet odd uncle, so I hc he dabbled a lot in various crafty hobbies that were dubiously useful at best and very strange at worst. For example, I hc that he was an outstanding bowler, which wouldn’t be very strange from our perspective but was hella odd to everyone else considering the fact that a.) he invented bowling in Hallownest, and b.) he himself was the ball, which kind of limited the amount of players that could engage in the game. I also feel like he’d be sort of a jack-of-all-trades sorta guy in that he’d dabble enthusiastically in certain things to learn them, but would only really stick to hobbies that he found enjoyable, such as making moonshine (which could either be excellent or terrible) or fishing odd trinkets out of the sewers to clean and make into toys or other things (some of which were gifted to Hornet when she was little, which she loved literally to pieces). In my gijinka au his horns and stink actually come from the pelt of a great boar that he killed all by himself, which he then proceeded to skin and cure himself. The process worked, but because he wasn’t much of an expert in it he didn’t really manage to get rid of the stench of the animal, so everytime he goes anywhere the whole place ends up stinking of wild boar. He’s completely oblivious to it, and nobody wants to ever bother him about it bc he’s both very nice and PK himself doesn’t mind it (in fact, he enjoys it bc it reminds him of being a young wyrm hunting boar while terrorizing the countryside, so if anything it makes him crave bacon), so nobody has the balls to be like ‘hey you kinda need to destink that m’dude

So the tdlr of his weird hobbies is that I think he’s kind of a mini craftsman himself except for the fact that he’s not really an expert in any of it and obtains his materials from dubious sources, lmfao

#anon #reply #hollow knight #ogrim #hollow knight ogrim #hk ogrim #he's kind of like the stereotypical dad except that cute bead bracelet he gave you is made entirely out of materials he found in a pile of

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ganymedesclock · 5 years

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Soul Master from Hollow Knight.

favorite thing about them

Okay dude may have done like. so many murders, so many of them, but he’s styling. The aesthetic. The organ. The refined gothic horror. Could your fave??? I think not.

least favorite thing about them

My good sir if you could perchance stop elbowdropping a child for ten minutes-

(in slightly more seriousness. really not a fan of the Soul Tryant’s clock attack)

favorite line

In my dreams I could see it. The Kingdom's salvation, the cure for the plague... the answer was in the soul that animates our bodies.

But the King... why?! He opposed everything I did...

His jealousy... his madness... by standing against me he robbed me of my immortality!

(Okay, not exactly inspiring or a knee-slapper but the delicious, delicious lore implications.)

brOTP

Does he have friends, really? I suppose he’s more interesting for the potential. I like the idea of him and PK having a longstanding sitcom nemeses grudge on each other in some hypothetical situation where they aren’t both dead. PK is stoic about it. Soul Master is doing AVPM Draco Malfoy spins on tables. pay attention to him you jerk.

PK pretends he is ignoring him, but he is a liar.

Also saw an askblog that seemed to run on the premise of “So Lurien and Soul Master Are Stuck In The Void” and that gave them a fun dynamic but not one like. especially rooted in canon except that living in the City of Tears, he was probably at some point, to some degree, Lurien’s Problem

OTP

Again Does He Have Friends

nOTP

Does He Have Enemies That Much Either

random headcanon

This isn’t exactly ‘random’ because it’s part of my fic Refuse & Regret, but, I imagine that “Soul Master” is a title he accrued for himself after PK’s disappearance, and before that point he just went by his name, Baliel.

unpopular opinion

...Is there Soul Master discourse? I don’t think so. I don’t know if the HK continuity has a congregation about any particular take on him that I feel that I could lob a hot onion into. I feel like the Soul Sanctum is a cool-ass area and the fandom could have more fun there than it seems to be presently having but I can’t fault them for focusing on other regions because that’s like every area and character in the game, Team Cherry you magnificent literally three people.

song i associate with them

Using part of his own battle theme might be cheating but it’s hard to find something quite as iconic as Mage Under Glass and that choir of voices that seem ambiguous if they’re laughing, or sobbing.

While it is ‘his area’ in a more literal sense, I kinda like to imagine the organ music in the Soul Sanctum main theme is tied to him / he’s got a pipe organ in there somewhere that he can play, kind of like how Marissa’s vocals float around the City of Tears. Dude’s got to have some hobbies in his tortured scientific immortality, here. Assuming he wrote the records, and his dream nail dialogue, he’s pretty clearheaded for a guy with solid infection eyes.

favorite picture of them

I might just consistently pass on this one because I’m laaazy and don’t save a lot of pictures of characters

But okay if you want some REAL GOOD Soul Master content you should check out @toldentops gijinkas of him. He makes the guy like. actually likable

#Send Me A Character #Hollow Knight #sepublic

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