Hornet (Hollow Knight)

Hornet is a fictional character created by Australian independent developer Team Cherry, who first appears as a boss in the video game Hollow Knight (2017), and later as the playable protagonist of its sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025). She is a warrior arachnid and princess of Hallownest, who acts as its protector. Hornet was created and is written by Team Cherry's co-founders and co-directors, Ari Gibson and William Pellen. She is drawn by Gibson, and voiced by Makoto Koji, a Japanese animator and the wife of Gibson. Team Cherry have stated her role as the Silksong protagonist drove many aspects of the game. Since her introduction in Hollow Knight, Hornet has been given praise, especially for her role as the protagonist of Silksong. Critics laud elements such as her character development, her having more personality than Hollow Knight's protagonist, and her showcase of both ruthless and compassionate aspects.

Appearances In the lore of Hollow Knight, prior to the events of the first game, Hornet was born from a cross between the wyrm king of Hallownest, the Pale King, and the weaver Herrah the Beast, as a result of a deal made between them, where Herrah would be able to have a child, but in turn become a "Dreamer", one of three beings who entered an eternal sleep to seal the Hollow Knight and contain the Infection. This led her to spend little time with her mother. Unlike the Pale King's other children, who are genderless, empty "vessels" born to contain the mind-controlling Infection, Hallownest's plague, she is referred to as "the Gendered Child", and cannot contain the infection. She was raised in Deepnest, and was trained in the Hive by its late Hive Queen Vespa. Hornet survived the fall of the Kingdom and remained unaffected by the Infection, staying sane.

Hollow Knight

In Hollow Knight, Hornet wanders the kingdom, testing escaped vessels to see if they can successfully defeat the Hollow Knight, the current vessel holding the Infection, and replace it, while also protecting the kingdom from invaders. She confronts the protagonist (often known as "the Knight") on two occasions, starting boss battles. After her second defeat, she places her trust in the Knight, soon saving it from getting crushed by rubble. Once the Knight kills Herrah in order to remove her seal on the Black Egg during traditional progression, Hornet can be seen mourning her depending on the player's progress through other parts of the game. If the player has achieved certain steps to unlock the alternate endings, Hornet later decides to help the protagonist defeat the Hollow Knight, which is located in the Black Egg, appearing near the end of the fight to open part of the Hollow Knight's shell. Hornet's fate from that point on depends on the player's choice. If the Knight uses the Dream Nail on the Hollow Knight, entering the Hollow Knight's dreams to defeat the Radiance, Hornet later awakens and discovers the Knight's broken mask near her, its fate unknown. In an alternate ending, if the Knight does not use the Dream Nail and continues attacking the Hollow Knight, Hornet and the Knight are sealed with the infection in the Temple, with her face appearing on the entrance. In the "Embrace the Void" DLC ending, which ends without entering the Black Egg, Hornet readies her guard upon seeing the Hollow Knight leave the Egg, before the cutscene fades to black.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

In Silksong, Hornet is kidnapped and brought to the unfamiliar kingdom of Pharloom. Throughout the game, she discovers her connection to the kingdom, grows attached to and assists the bugs of Pharloom, battles foes such as Lace—whom she later saves—and eventually is able to leave and free Pharloom from its "Haunting", getting rescued by the Knight and its fellow vessels in the game's "true" ending, "Sister of the Void". Alternatively, her fate differs in other endings: she becomes the new ruler of Pharloom in "Weaver Queen", replacing the antagonist Grand Mother Silk, and in "Twisted Child", which is occurs when the game is completed while Hornet is under the effect of a dangerous curse, she intertwines with Grand Mother Silk, creating a tree with petrified versions of them both.

Concept and creation

Hornet was created by Ari Gibson and William Pellen, the co-founders and co-directors of Team Cherry, who also wrote her dialogue, and was drawn by Gibson. She is voiced by Japanese animator and Gibson's wife Makoto Koji, who voiced her by "making up [her] own gibberish" that felt "natural" and "instinctual". She believes that "the voice [and] sounds of the character ... is only the final icing on the cake". Gibson and Pellen state that Hornet's voice lines are meant to be in a fictional language, with lines like "Gek tu".

Pellen describes Hornet as being a "natural rival character", which made him feel like she was a "natural pick" for a playable character, also calling her the "secondary protagonist" of Hollow Knight, due to her being "closely linked to [the] core narrative thread", and Gibson describes her as having "natural qualities that lend her to being a fun video game character, [such as her] agile, quick, deadly style", which made him want to make her playable, also calling her a "character of extremes", which influenced her healing in Silksong. Her height is cited as being a major reason why Silksong was expanded from a Hollow Knight DLC to its own game, as she would not naturally fit as the player character in Hollow Knight's world of Hallownest. Her speed and skillset are described as being why enemies in Silksong were more complex than enemies in Hollow Knight, with Gibson stating "Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful than the Knight—so even the base level enemy had to be more complicated, more intelligent". Pellen stated that she is "quite different [to the Knight] because she can speak; she's a much more direct character", making Silksong have traditional quests and more characters.

Reception

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