Media Essays: How To Adapt Hollow Knight?

Written by The Wandering Fox

Freddy and Teddy were just watching a spider making its web with curiousity in their eyes.

Teddy: It’s just incredible, watching a tiny little bug creating something so complex.

Freddy: Yeah, just amazing. Is it any wonder that there’s been so much done with them over the years, exploring how they work? It’s amazing.

Teddy: It’s no wonder lots of franchises are made of bugs. But the most popular has to be Hollow Knight. The whole A Bug’s Life meets Dark Souls.

Freddy: Yeah, it’s a shame there hasn’t been an adaptation of that game made, it’d be so great to see it.

Well I might have the answers for you guys, and it’s something I do respect. But still I can’t help but wonder if it could be done?

Hello all, I’m the Wandering Fox and today I’m gonna be looking at Hollow Knight and why it hasn’t had an adaptation yet and I’m gonna explore how they could do. First of all though let’s take a dive back to Hollow Knight’s beginnings.

The Little Mighty Bug of Indies

Hollow Knight was created by a small Australian video game indie company called Team Cherry and released on Windows in 2017 and was a big win for the team having 15 million copies once it was made available on disc. It started life back in 2013 with their original game Hungry Knight which featured the Knight having to kill bugs and eat them to survive, then they took the character and ended up creating a whole other dimension for the character. I only found out about Hollow Knight thanks to The Owl House featuring a few Easter Eggs and it’s believed the game inspired the story of Hunter and the Grimwalkers.

The Knight among King’s toys.

To the left of the image you can see the Knight’s own head.

I bought my copy later and I have played it and my goodness the game is a challenge, I’ve not even completed it because I’m bloody frightened I’m gonna bigger up fighting the Hollow Knight and the Radiance, that and I tried completing a few side quests like the Delicate Flower which I almost got done but it was damaged and I rage quit XD but I might go back to the game and try to finish a few fights, that and I do want to play Silksong, that game looks so good!

The game is quite dark despite being quite cartoony with its character designs but they managed to make it work with the scenery and music, giving you this fantastical story with bugs that is steep in tragedy and turmoil but has enough heart and humour to make you want to complete the game. The story basically sees an evil moth monarch called the Radiance having been trapped within the Hollow Knight trying to get out and infect the kingdom of Hallownest, corrupting those there to obey her. The Knight returns to Hallownest to either take the Hollow Knight’s place or kill the Radiance. In the game we meet many characters including the Last Stag, Elderbug, Grubfather, and Hornet who is way more central to the game than we think. We find out as well the Knight is more than what we think and was born out of tragedy, with They’re father the Pale King and the White Lady having birthed hundreds of bugs and fused them with a strange entity called the Void to see who had been truly hollow to contain the Radiance. The children were hollowed out of mind or voice, which not only proves to be a fatal flaw in the Hollow Knight, but a curious case for the Knight and an adaptation. With Silksong out though and lots of lore in there with a talkative protagonist the question is...

Why Hasn’t An Adaptation Been Made?

I respect William and Ari for their choice to not wanting a adaption. They would rather not have their work go to somebody else who would then maybe make it far different from what it was, I.e. the Knight could be talking, there’d be humour in there that wouldn’t work. The other case for why there hasn’t been an adaptation made is because thanks to the Knight being a dead quiet character and the game’s plot is uncovered just bit by bit, it would be quite hard to adapt it, then there’s the many different endings to the game. But that’s not to say it can’t be done and I might have an idea of what to do.

What I Would Do?

There will be spoilers regarding the endings of Hollow Knight and the true ending of Silksong. If you don’t want to see it, then don’t stop looking.

The first game would be done as a season one while Silksong is season two. I imagine the episodes to be about 17 given there’d a lot of characters to meet and lots of lore to find out about.

The story would be told in two perspectives: The Knight’s and Hornet’s.

Hornet’s is the perspective that helps us understand a bit more about the Radiance, I.e her first scene is meeting Quirrel based on the prequel comic, then after that she could talk of how Hallownest was once a thriving community and kingdom but fell to darkness long ago, the Radiance has not been truly defeated and wonders exactly what she and the ordinary bugs of Hallownest can do. That’s when the Dreamers realise the Knight is coming. The Knight’s perspective is that They’re learning a bit more about the place, we meet the people through Their eyes, like Elderbug who is all alone in the Fading Town. After meeting him, the Knight goes in the well and after fighting a few brainwashed bugs They meet Hornet, who realises who They are and takes in how They can’t talk and may not seem to have a mind but They have come to the Kingdom for something. The series focuses on Hornet trying to find out more about the Knight, or Little Ghost as she calls Them, while They explore the kingdom meet those who are not brainwashed, with the Knight beginning to choose to help them before battling its sibling in the Black Egg.

The different endings of the game are first seen as visions Hornet can have with a Snail Shaman or with the Dreamers, in which she sees the many different outcomes: The Knight takes the Hollow Knight’s place to contain the Radiance, she could be trapped with Them in the Black Egg, or the Knight uses the Dream Nail to enter the Hollow Knight’s mind to kill the Radiance. If the Knight succeeds in killing the Radiance however there’s the chance the Radiance could’ve made it to the Astral plane of the Godseekers and even if the Radiance is killed there the Void could be running havoc unless the Knight gifts the Godseeker the Delicate Flower.

Hornet is weary of wether the Knight can really succeed thanks to Them being hollow, and wonders if any of these can help as if the Knight takes the Hollow Knight’s place it just means sacrificing another life. If it has gained enough of a personality then it will fail like the Hollow Knight. She challenges the Knight here and there to see if They are truly Hollow or not.

With me, the Embrace the Void ending and Dream No More are the canon endings to go with thanks to Silksong revealing that those are the canon endings, which means the Knight unites with the Void and it’s siblings to kill the Radiance and take her to the Void. Dream No More comes first in which the Knight escapes the Hollow Knight’s mind but Their sibling can’t help but feel the Radiance is still there. The Godseekers arrive, with the Grimm Troupe also coming, and say they want to see the Gods of Hallownest. Grimm, who is theorised to be the Radiance’s brother, has managed to use his powers to rescue the Radiance, who is secretly plotting to infect the Godseekers and continue her infection beyond Hallownest. The Knight goes to leave but Hornet fears the Knight will be killed though They go. The Knight gives the Godseeker a Delicate Flower and battles the Radiance with Their siblings coming together to help Them defeat the Radiance, though the Knight sacrifices Their mortality and becomes the Lord of Shades, controlling the Void in Their will. Hornet can see that it’s worked and she gathers the Knight’s shell to give Them a proper burial, though the Hollow Knight stands behind Hornet with the camera focussing on Their Nail, like it is in the ending.

Hollow Knight - Embrace the Void (with flower) ending

The series does need to try and divide much of its runtime to the character growth of Quirrel, Sly, Bretta, the Nailsmith and have us meet the Pale King, the White Lady, Queen Vespa and Herrah in flashbacks to know more of them. Grimm’s defeat and being impressed with the Knight has him realise the Radiance is gonna lose and chooses to leave Hallownest. You can have some little teases to Grand Mother Silk with Herrah hidden her colony of spiders below Hallownest to hide away to not be found by her.

Silksong is the second season, with the ending revealing the Knight is still there with Their siblings in the Void but come to rescue Hornet and Lace. With the series here it does stay more truer to the game than having to tell things from another perspective that much but maybe at least do let us see Lace’s and Grand Mother Silk’s perspective. Sherma would do well in having a few bits to himself in which we look to how his optimism was damaged but he matures and is braver, while Hornet can have a confrontation with Grand Mother Silk before fighting her. I’d maybe give the season a definitive ending other than Lace laughing tearfully at Hornet, like have Hornet stay and help rebuild Pharloom and let the citadel and its bugs live more freely and the Weavers don’t have a lasting affect on the kingdom. Lace would maybe go on her way to find herself, maybe finding a Snail Shaman to help her come to peace with herself.

Those who could work on the series, I’d suggest hiring those who are NOT gonna drastically change things like Ian Flynn (who is not a gamer), Adi, or those who are more interested in twisting it to suit their ideas. Try and be as faithful as you can to the game. Don’t have the Knight talking, don’t have Hornet make crude remarks about the bugs She’s romanced in the years, just try and do a faithful take on it.

Freddy: Eh, I doubt anybody would care.

Yeah I know.

Teddy: But it’d be nice. I could see Dana Terrace storyboarding it.

Yeah I think she’d be good as a storyboard artist and maybe a director. Though William and Ari should be involved in the creative process because they have to see if any of the creatives involved are changing up a bit much of the series. Cheers for this guys. Hope everybody would like to comment below.

Teddy: You’re welcome!

Freddy: Oh and don’t forget…

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