Analyzing the Best Cutscene in Hollow Knight [OUTDATED]
41PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION:
This video is not my best work, and there were a lot of things I missed, framed in a misleading way, or didn’t elaborate on that well. So to partly make up for that, I’m gonna add some notes here:
2:20 The fact that the radiance doesn’t immediately attack you, and that you have to physically press “challenge” to initiate the fight, might seem like a small detail in terms of gameplay. And it is--at this point, you’ve made a lot of significant choices leading up to this point, and you’ve come too far to turn back unless you literally turn the game off. But look at it from the Knight’s point of view. In the overworld, the Radiance’s infected bugs anyone who isn’t part of her hivemind. But in the realm of dreams, she doesn’t think you’re there to kill her unless you make it obvious. You can to bask in her light forever (and I wouldn’t put it past some of the bugs of Hallownest to do that) or you can challenge her, an action that forces your little character to physically take that last step—framing it as a choice rather than just having to kill the Radiance in self-defense or out of desperation. Plus, we (the players) have watched enough lore videos to know who the Radiance is, but the Knight? It knows that it’s there to stop the infection, and that the infection is from some kind of light, but it’s never seen the Radiance’s physical form before. While it was surely prepared to face some sort of difficulty when it issued its challenge, it couldn’t have guessed what was about to happen next.
2:41 This is a fitting intro, because the Radiance is a goddess and she should be introduced as such. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
3:46 The sun spreading her wings, and the scene where the Radiance teleports right up to you and roars aren’t just aesthetically pleasing scenes. They’re there to visually symbolize how outmatched you are.
5:20 I can’t quite articulate what’s wrong with this section, but I feel like I overemphasized the concept of choice here. I mean, it’s important that there are multiple endings to the game, and that you’re not just fighting the Radiance because your father told you to, but those ideas aren’t the primary focus of the scene itself. The primary focus is to introduce the Radiance as a formidable and otherworldly being, and to show how out of your depth you are as a “defective” little vessel. And while it's terrifying to a lot of people, it’s also supposed to be inspiring—the game makes a point of having you issue that challenge, drawing your sword and not flinching as the Radiance roars and teleports towards you, showing your courage and persistence in the face of adversity. The idea of choice is somewhat relevant here, but it's much more relevant to my video essay on how Hollow Knight subverts the chosen one trope. It was just sort of on my mind I guess.
5:57 Lastly, Hollow Knight doesn’t just narratively subvert religious ideas, it also plays with the visual language in which those ideas are expressed. Christians will often portray their saints with halos of light, or they’ll portray “the light of God” or whatever, with the assumption that light is inherently good. They’ll also portray angels with wings like the Radiance’s. And like the Radiance, religion interferes with your ability to think for yourself. The Knight, on the other hand, is a tiny creature of darkness (at least partially made of void) and it was cast down into a hell pit by its father for not being hollow. For being disobedient by nature of what it is. And in this battle between the winged being of light with a halo, and the little creature of darkness, we’re supposed to be rooting for the creature of darkness. And that’s rad.
Also, there’s this idea (an idea that I personally agree with!) that the Radiance wasn’t originally Bad™—she only ruled the moth tribe, and she didn’t cause the infection back then. In this case, the religion comparison still works, but it’s a bit more nuanced: external, colonialist forces (read: the Pale King) brought out the worst parts of the Radiance/religion, and indirectly resulted in her becoming a more extreme, more damaging version of the goddess she once was. A bit like how some Islamic extremism is less about Islam itself, and more of a reaction to being mistreated by the state of Israel. I acknowledge that all patriarchal religions are damaging (including Christianity!) but at a certain point, you’ve got to acknowledge the difference between religious people who aggressively proselytize, tell you that homosexuality is a sin, try to pass laws that are unfair to women, etc. and religious people who don’t do that. But both that political discussion, and the discussion about how the Pale King is an asshole, are topics for another day.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOQeU68uvc9b7X9PCzQljD7e9rPXwKIMu7VUASlHm_8/edit?usp=sharing
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Ixia Reignited presently has 10,255 views for Hollow Knight across 13 videos, with the game making up 3 hours of published video on his channel. This is 41.52% of the total watchable video for Hollow Knight on Ixia Reignited's YouTube channel.