What's the deal with Zote? [Heavy Lore Spoilers]

[Wel Wyrmin]

Sure we all at this point know him. You know that goofy good-for-nothing mighty warrior of great renown. But anyhow. What's the deal with him? As we all know hollow knight's are unlike those found within hallownest. So why does he resemble the knight so much? As far as I'm aware every single hollow knight besides the player and the boss is dead.

So here's the question. If Zote had skill (or wanted to show it) could he have become the protagonist of the story considering he might be a hollow knight himself? And why is he one of the few remaining hollow knights in existence?

[Fracastador]

Zote's problem extends beyond lack of skill: he actually BELIEVES he as as strong as he claims to be, while he is demonstrably not, and the weapon he runs around with isn't even real.

The consensus I've heard on Zote is that he is not a vessel. He's just short. That's just speculation though.
The only reasons we have to think he isn't a vessel is his ability to speak (+ his actual mouth), his actual personality, and his references to his father in his dream nail dialogue, though I "suppose" he could be talking about the pale king as his father were he a vessel. Maybe he was a prototype or something? Grey "prince" might be more accurate than we realize.

I believe that if Zote ACTUALLY had skill, and was a real vessel, he would follow through with the quest that all vessels supposedly share.
He's not a coward, and I'd imagine he'd jump at the chance for honor, without necessarily thinking through the implications of what would happen to him should he succeed. He's just weak and delusional.

[Angry Owl]

Looking through the kickstarter for HK, it looks like the 3rd char DLC was meant to feature Zote.
Considering how other two playable characters are either vessel (HK) or partly vessel (Hornet) think it's fair to say Zote is most likely a (partly) vessel too

[Carrier Pidgeons]

Considering the similarities between the vessels and Zote, he's either surprisingly absolutely unrelated and looks similar as a joke / juxtaposition (we have the silent, powerful protag and then the loudmouth idiot) or some kind of absolute 100% failure or prototype of a vessel, having both a mouth and being nowhere near empty.

It's interesting via Precept 56 that he is one of the few that understands how the Radiance / plague functions and has his own way to circumvent it.

[TARINunit9]

Originally posted by Mille:

I like to think that Zote is a vessel. Just a failed one, that got a personality and his own will (he is very willful!) to go do his own thing. Perhaps his big obsession with being his own great person could be partially due to resentment over the whole vessel thing?

My first instinct is that he can't be a vessel because he mentions having abusive parents in his precepts, but then I remember who the King and Queen were...