User blog:TheGhostofHallownest/Melancholic Beauty

Ever since I was young I've always been haunted, in a good way, by the beautiful shades of melancholy found in art. My favorite Beatles songs were always the ones with slightly sad overtones. Nowhere man in particular. It was sad but in a way hopeful. I think this asthetic is so perfectly captured in this game that despite my affinity for Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and other master pieces, this game Is my current favorite. The game, the world, is sad and though The Knights effect on the ruined kingdom of Hallownest is certainly great, he doesn't fix the place. The King stays dead (probably, It seems he could be hiding somewhere or could have escaped.) The White Lady stays binded with her guardian dead outside, The Dreamers die and the ratio for infected to uninfected bugs in the kingdom is quite disheartening for the future. Though, no matter what ending you get, you do leave the kingdom in a better shape for revival. At a cost. That cost varies on the ending, but there is always a cost.

I think a specific NPC and side quest best illustrates what I'm trying to say here;

The Grubfather. The first time you meet him, he's crying off in the backround of the screen. With no context this just seems to be one bug wallowing in the misery of the ruined kingdom. It's cry is disturbing and quite sad. He doesn't see you. He doesn't see anything. just the sadness. But. By the end, The Knight has returned to him all of his children. His situation was greatly improved by The Knight and allthough his children will probably kill him when they complete their metamorphasis inside of him, he got them back to do what his species does. Since he seems to be the last of his kind capable of this incubation process, it means his species is saved. They have hope for survival in this bleak yet beautiful world....

I'll write more on this later. I have some thoughts about The Void...