Ending boss fight sad? (Possible spoilers?)

[JoJo]

People think the Hollow Knight boss fight is sad? Why???

[Tat011]

Because he stabs himself?

[Desticler]

I didnt find it sad either.

[JoJo]

Originally posted by Tat011:

Because he stabs himself?

So?

[barfbag69fartmachine]

Because our hollow boy dies in all of them
Even if you kill the radiance

[JoJo]

Originally posted by Salty Skeleton:

Because our hollow boy dies in all of them
Even if you kill the radiance

After what i read they mostly say that the boss fight itself is sad. The thing you said is sad, yeah, but in this it's just the boss.

[barfbag69fartmachine]

Originally posted by ARandomDude:

Originally posted by Salty Skeleton:

Because our hollow boy dies in all of them
Even if you kill the radiance

After what i read they mostly say that the boss fight itself is sad. The thing you said is sad, yeah, but in this it's just the boss.

The ''last'' boss is THE hollow knight, your brother essentially. They need to be hollow to keep the radiance locked up. Turns out the hollow knight is not completely hollow so you wake the dreamers, break the seals, kill your brother and lock the radiance within you

The alternative is going inside the hollow knight and murdering the everloving ♥♥♥♥ out of the radiance. It still kills you and the hollow knight but radiance dies so horray

[JoJo]

Ah, okay. Still don't think it's sad XD

[Sunsetter]

If you know the story and got to the end without finding it sad, I doubt anyone can help you there. It's like humor - either it gets to you and invokes the emotion or it doesn't

[Boksha]

Also worth noting he was supposed to be able to hold the infection inside of him forever by being completely emotionless, and probably only failed and was slowly driven mad (Path of Pain spoilers) out of loneliness and missing his father.

[Nova Solarius]

I mostly found it sad because I expected more. I wanted a real battle, an epic showdown with the titular Hollow Knight. What I got was a short sparring match I could barely consider a warm-up, never mind the duel of the ages I was hoping for. I mean, I get it, the Hollow Knight is easy because you need to fight him every time you lose against the Radiance, but still. A sad excuse for a boss.

[fillername]

THK is massively built up what with the statue and cryptic mentions that you might expect an actual fight. When you arrive, it fights at first, but then it becomes more and more decrepit as the fight continues. Towards the end it just ragdolls at you, it can't even swing its sword without falling over. The Radiance pushes it to its absolute limit in desperation. The moment when the music changes and it starts stabbing itself is incredibly well put together. This is all made much better by PV who shows you what THK was like before being shoved in an egg. Thats my thought process at least.

It reminds me of Vendrick in DS 2, except that moments a bit better IMO.

[Desticler]

Originally posted by Nova Solarius:

I mostly found it sad because I expected more. I wanted a real battle, an epic showdown with the titular Hollow Knight. What I got was a short sparring match I could barely consider a warm-up, never mind the duel of the ages I was hoping for. I mean, I get it, the Hollow Knight is easy because you need to fight him every time you lose against the Radiance, but still. A sad excuse for a boss.

And that's why Pure Vessel was made.

[Kaschey]

It's not sad. It's fkn depressive.

[Syndiciate]

Well, what you find to be sad is going to be different then what others find to be sad, but I can lay out the reasons why myself and others find it to be sad if you like.

The Hollow Knight was essentially brought up by his own father to be used as a sacrifice to contain the power of a malevolent god after all his siblings were cast into the Abyss ( likely so that the Radiance couldn't use them against the Pale King or Hallownest ).

Unfortunately, because of an "idea instilled" ( the Pale King showing him fatherly affection at the end of the Path of Pain ) the Hollow Knight came to love his father and see it as his duty to protect the people of Hallownest. The irony is that, because of this, the Hollow Knight was unable to fully contain the Radiance. For years and years the Hollow Knight struggled to keep the Radiance imprisoned as it ravaged his body and mind until he encountered the Knight.

In that encounter the Hollow Knight is being driven to destroy the Knight by the Radiance but we can see flashes of his true self as he uses the moments where he has control of his own body to stab himself in order to help you defeat the Radiance. This means that even after having been left to rot in the Black Egg for years at the mercy of a malevolent god he still only thinks of the duty given to him by his father and willingly gives his own life to see it carried out.

The tragedy of this tale is that the Pale King was willing to sacrifice thousands of his children in order to protect his people, but because he couldn't help but love his son and his son couldn't help but love him back, they ultimately doomed themselves and their people.

Now, I don't know what you find sad or tragic, but to me, this is the among the saddest stories I've ever encountered in a fictional setting. Maybe that's just me though.

[Acolyte]

the fight isn't that sad, but i think some people consider it sad because of the intense lore. i mean mate, the final boss is technically your innocent brother whos been taken over by an unstoppable evil force! and the sealed siblings ending is probably the worst ending, since you've only sealed the infection for another small amount of time, and soon the same fate will come.