If you have not but made it to the top of Hole Knight: Silksong — certainly one of our favorite video games of 2025 — then be warned, there are main spoilers for the whole thing of the sport under…
Many bugs are matriarchal creatures. For termites, honey bees, praying mantises, ants, and spiders (shh, I do know they’re arachnids), their colonies and societies are led by females or outlined by female-controlled constructions. They vary from teams pushed by feminine staff to matriarchs answerable for breeding and elevating the whole colony.
So it makes excellent sense that Hole Knight: Silksong is a sport ruled by its ladies. Hole Knight definitely embraces a part of this with its true remaining boss in The Radiance. However from its very first encounter all the way in which to the finale, Silksong’s ladies drive the plot ahead. It goes method past being led by Hornet, a half-spider, half-wyrm who grew to become The Knight’s ally within the first sport.
In Pharloom and the Citadel, a world ensnared by silk and gripped by tune, ladies are every little thing. Ladies are guides who assist Hornet and chart the corridors of Pharloom. They’re highly effective keepers of data who bear the historical past of this damaged kingdom will do no matter it takes to reserve it. They’re moms, sisters, daughters, household who love and have let down, who’ve been forgotten or pushed mad. They’re individuals who have suffered and struggled and proceed to battle.
Hornet herself is the right hero for Silksong’s narrative, one outlined by programs of oppression, of familial and generational trauma, of sophistication divides and spiritual management. Initially stripped of lots of her powers and expertise, she struggles and climbs — bodily and mentally — to the highest of the Citadel, earlier than collapsing again right down to the underside. I do know I’m beating the drum of “the battle is the purpose” right here, however the gameplay ties so superbly with these aforementioned themes, together with womanhood, I’ll proceed to beat the identical rhythm.
A lot of Silksong’s hardest challenges come within the type of feminine figures. The Final Decide, the infamous roadblock between the top of Act 1 and the start of Act 2, is among the many most fearsome bosses within the sport, battering you with a fiery thurible and crimson embers again and again, in a chamber drowning in her bellowing screams and her face obscured by what seems like a tear-stained masks.
Then there are the Weavers – Widow and her tips that use threads to govern bells and overwhelm Hornet, whereas First Sinner is a lightning-fast combatant who teleports and zippers across the enviornment breathlessly. These are feminine figures that outline Pharloom’s historical past.
It isn’t like Hornet is weak, both. She’s a strong girl raised by highly effective ladies; her mom is Herrah the Beast, she skilled below the Hive Queen Vespa, and was mentored for a time by The White Queen. She carries that energy, displaying confidence and pragmatism whereas at all times treating everybody with respect. Even when her eventual rival, Lace, taunts her on their first assembly, she doesn’t mock her again: “Your threats are nugatory, little one. If you’re my foe, keep your voice and lift your blade.”
Identical to how Hornet contrasts The Knight, different roles stuffed by males or male-presenting figures in Hole Knight at the moment are usually held by ladies. Shakra is a really completely different cartographer than Cornifer; a warrior by nature, she is attempting to find her lacking mentor. She’s an immense assist to Hornet all through the sport, outlined by a lot greater than her energy and her skill to map the world.
For one, Shakra is a girl of custom; she is discovered by scattered throwing rings and the dulcet tones of her singing voice. She involves tremendously respect Hornet all through the journey, recognising her as a fellow warrior. And although she’s not from the inside areas of Pharloom, like Bone Backside or the Citadel, in Act 3 she nonetheless takes up the mantle as defender of Bellhart when the Void begins to overwhelm.
Equally, the Bell Beast is your Final Stag of Silksong, and she or he’s the exact opposite. Lively, vocal, and a fan of pets, Bella (sure, I named her) comes to like Hornet as a result of she saved her from being ensnared in silk. Even when Hornet has to knock a little bit of sense into her.
And, like Shakra, the Bell Beast undergoes a little bit of a metamorphosis in Act 3. My coronary heart leapt into my throat once I rang the bell on the Bellway and my trusty companion didn’t arrive, as an alternative changed by the Bell Eater. Fortunately, I had nothing to fret about, as after confronting the monstrous centipede-like creature and struggling, the Beast emerges and takes it down. Reunited along with her companion, she introduces her litter of cute youngsters, and the 5 of them sing as Hornet performs the Needolin.
The Bell Beast has a cause to guard Pharloom – she’s a mom. Performing as a mirror to Hole Knight as soon as once more, which centered on failed father figures and damaged households, Silksong casts a a lot wider internet on the theme, encompassing moms and mother-like figures from each nook of life. From the Moss Mom to the splinters and the ants, as anybody who walked into Hunter’s March early on and received battered to dying is aware of, household and motherhood is the center of Silksong.
Talking of the ants, the once-great chief, Skarrsinger Karmelita (matriarchal ants, bear in mind?), is among the many strongest characters I confronted in Silksong. Earlier than diving into her reminiscence, she asks Hornet, “My energy… my energy… May you declare it, pale beast? Are you so sturdy?…”, which is fairly apt as a result of in her prime, Karmelita humbled me with each her aria and her battle prowess for hours. Provided that she was the one chief who might shield her tribe from the attract of the silk (for a time) due to the ability of her voice, her energy ought to be no shock.
She is a mixture of stereotypical masculine and female qualities, however her place as matriarch, as chief, is simple. Sleek, respectful, and with a whole bunch of loyal followers who help and shield her, she’s an important distinction to the aptly-named Grand Mom Silk, the determine behind all of Pharloom’s ills. The place Karmelita cares about her tribe, Grand Mom needs solely to be absolutely the ruler.
As a pale increased being who was deserted by her “daughters” (the Weavers), Grand Mom Silk is haunting the silk and utilizing her energy to get folks to worship her, driving them mad. She even goes so far as to style extra youngsters from silk to like her. A kind of is Lace, a dutiful daughter pushed mad by her want to easily make her mom blissful. She is the kid of a mom who has finished many unhealthy issues, burdened with the load of these sins and the alternatives she has to make for her parental determine, together with bringing Hornet to Pharloom to fulfill her.
Ultimately, it drives Lace to self-loathing: If you happen to play the Needolin through the second battle along with her in The Cradle, she’ll sing “Why her… Mom… See me reduce! See me serve!” Ultimately, Lace rebels and firstly of Act 3, she cuts her mom’s arm off to free Hornet from falling into the Void. Lace as an alternative goes down, however her mom does make one sacrifice: she cocoons Lace to guard her as finest as she will, on the gradual value of her soul.
Lace’s try at breaking free from her mom, of lashing out at her, ends in her turning into depending on her. Pharloom continues to be ensnared by the pale mom’s silken grip, now tainted with the darkness under. And it’s solely proper that Lace is saved by Hornet on the finish, pulled from the Void and allowed to reside freely. Lace made that alternative by chopping her mom’s arm off, and Hornet permits her to see that alternative by way of.
Ladies breaking free and taking a stand occurs all through Silksong; Shakra and the Bell Beast had been simply two examples, and whereas it isn’t unique to ladies, it does really feel completely different when framed by way of their struggles.
Even Hornet’s journey, past merely liberating Pharloom, is about breaking free and retaining her company. Slapping Nuu on the first indicators of method or scolding Kratt after he spies on her within the flea spa are a number of easy moments of this – ones that made me chuckle at first, however later realise simply how vital they had been to sustaining Silksong’s respect for its feminine characters.
This respect stretches to the trail to the Cursed Youngster ending and getting the Witch Crest. This includes placing Hornet by way of a horrendous expertise that “curses” her after a parasite is forcibly inserted into her physique. It utterly adjustments how Hornet’s physique features and the way she performs – she will’t heal, she will’t use instruments, and she will’t use Silk Expertise.
With this “curse”, Hornet can both defeat Grand Mom Silk, or she will search the assistance of Yarnaby, a disgraced physician who was kicked out of Bellhart due to her practices. It’s a not-subtle story about bodily autonomy, pressured motherhood, and overcoming trauma. Yarnaby, an outcast, extracts the “curse” from Hornet, which in flip offers you the Witch Crest.
Everyone knows the historic connotations of the phrase ‘witch‘, particularly associated to ladies and the persecution we (and plenty of others) have so usually confronted when branded with that time period. However quests like this remind us that alternative is a strong factor and, if we have now the area to select, we should always, for we — everybody — outline ourselves by our selections.
With out womanhood, and with out its ladies, Silksong could be a really completely different sport. It ties into all the thematic riches of the narrative superbly, and there are such a lot of highly effective ladies all through Pharloom, past even the few I’ve talked about, equivalent to Jubilana, Neyleth, and the Forge Daughter.
After I mirror on Silksong, I take into consideration all the ladies who grew up taking part in video video games, notably Metroid. Seeing Samus take away her swimsuit for the primary time will need to have been unimaginable; I knew about this ‘twist’ earlier than taking part in any sport, and it nonetheless felt unimaginable to be taking part in as a girl with energy and autonomy in a method few different video games have since.
Hornet may simply be “a bug”, however her journey all through Pharloom is a vital one for ladies. We’re not excellent beings, and Silksong isn’t shy about saying that. Hornet herself messes up in not recognising the Snail Shaman’s plans to make use of the Void to lure Grand Mom Silk. However she makes a alternative to save lots of these folks, to liberate those that have suffered below the silken thread for therefore lengthy. To free herself of the curse. To avoid wasting Lace and let her reside her personal life.
Amidst the oppression of Pharloom, there’s hope, there’s a likelihood to interrupt free. And the ladies will lead the cost.
Did you get pleasure from Silksong in 2025? Will you be grabbing the Sea of Sorrow DLC at any time when it arrives? Tell us.
