Talk:Pale King

Does he really count as a villain? He's flawed, sure, but he was never quite depicted as tyrannical or evil in the game at all.

His worst actions were creating the vessels, and that was just in a desperate attempt to contain the infection. Besides, he was creating them, as opposed to the Soul Masters who were getting their soul to experiment with by killing bugs. In the end, he even died, saying "No cost too great", so he was willing to sacrifice everything to try to save the kingdom. That doesn't really sound like a tyrannical ruler, putting his kingdom and everything else before himself. Even if the plan didn't end up working, he died so its not like he just ignored the failure of the Radiance's containment.

The bugs of Hallownest willingly worshipped him, and he didn't even force the dreamers to help contain the Radiance. The dreamers did so willingly, of their own volition (though Herra did demand a bargain in the form of a child in return). Not even the Hollow Knight itself was forced into it's role. It could be said that it didn't have a choice in the matter, which I would say is valid, but it didn't resist its role at all. Even though it was imperfect, not truly hollow, it still tried its best to not think or feel so it could contain the Radiance.

He's not even emotionless or cold. He wasn't trying to prevent the fall of Hallownest simply though some cold logical desire to sustain the kingdom, he wanted the best for his people, No cost too great. He shared some tender moments with the Hollow Knight, like what you see at the end of the Path of Pain, which is implied to possibly have caused to Hollow Knight to become impure. This is a big mistake on the Pale King's part, yes, but it's not from a place of villainy but because he felt a sense of fatherhood with it. He cared about the Hollow Knight, its understandable he shared some moments with it. His flaw in this case was he himself was too emotionally attached to it.

So basically, the Pale King himself doesn't cause the problems in the game. His actions may not have always been ethical, but that was because he was willing to do anything in order to save his people. He's more of a flawed hero than a villain at all.

Geicosuave (talk) 11:50, October 16, 2018 (UTC)