If you haven't yet made it to the end of Hollow Knight: Silksong — one of our favourite games of 2025 — then be warned, there are major spoilers for the entirety of the game below...
Many insects are matriarchal creatures. For termites, honey bees, praying mantises, ants, and spiders (shh, I know they’re arachnids), their colonies and societies are led by females or defined by female-controlled structures. They range from groups driven by female workers to matriarchs responsible for breeding and raising the entire colony.
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So it makes perfect sense that Hollow Knight: Silksong is a game governed by its women. Hollow Knight certainly embraces part of this with its true final boss in The Radiance. But from its very first encounter all the way to the finale, Silksong’s women drive the plot forward. It goes way beyond being led by Hornet, a half-spider, half-wyrm who became The Knight’s ally in the first game.
In Pharloom and the Citadel, a world ensnared by silk and gripped by song, women are everything. Women are guides who help Hornet and chart the corridors of Pharloom. They’re powerful keepers of knowledge who bear the history of this broken kingdom will do whatever it takes to save it. They’re mothers, sisters, daughters, family who love and have let down, who have been forgotten or driven mad. They’re people who have suffered and struggled and continue to struggle.
Hornet herself is the perfect hero for Silksong’s narrative, one defined by systems of oppression, of familial and generational trauma, of class divides and religious control. Initially stripped of many of her powers and skills, she struggles and climbs — physically and mentally — to the top of the Citadel, before collapsing back down to the bottom. I know I’m beating the drum of “the struggle is the point” here, but the gameplay ties so beautifully with those aforementioned themes, including womanhood, I will continue to beat the same rhythm.
Many of Silksong's toughest challenges come in the form of female figures. The Last Judge, the notorious roadblock between the end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2, is among the most fearsome bosses in the game, battering you with a fiery thurible and crimson embers over and over again, in a chamber drowning in her bellowing screams and her face obscured by what looks like a tear-stained mask.
Then there are the Weavers – Widow and her tricks that use threads to manipulate bells and overwhelm Hornet, while First Sinner is a lightning-fast combatant who teleports and zips around the arena breathlessly. These are female figures that define Pharloom’s history.
It isn’t like Hornet is weak, either. She’s a powerful woman raised by powerful women; her mother is Herrah the Beast, she trained under the Hive Queen Vespa, and was mentored for a time by The White Queen. She carries that strength, displaying confidence and pragmatism while always treating everyone with respect. Even when her eventual rival, Lace, taunts her on their first meeting, she does not mock her back: “Your threats are worthless, child. If you are my foe, stay your voice and raise your blade.”
Just like how Hornet contrasts The Knight, other roles filled by men or male-presenting figures in Hollow Knight are now often held by women. Shakra is a very different cartographer than Cornifer; a warrior by nature, she is hunting for her missing mentor. She’s an immense help to Hornet throughout the game, defined by so much more than her strength and her ability to map the world.
For one, Shakra is a woman of tradition; she is found by scattered throwing rings and the dulcet tones of her singing voice. She comes to greatly respect Hornet throughout the journey, recognising her as a fellow warrior. And even though she’s not from the inner areas of Pharloom, like Bone Bottom or the Citadel, in Act 3 she still takes up the mantle as defender of Bellhart when the Void begins to overwhelm.
Similarly, the Bell Beast is your Last Stag of Silksong, and she’s the complete opposite. Active, vocal, and a fan of pets, Bella (yes, I named her) comes to love Hornet because she saved her from being ensnared in silk. Even if Hornet has to knock a bit of sense into her.
And, like Shakra, the Bell Beast undergoes a bit of a transformation in Act 3. My heart leapt into my throat when I rang the bell at the Bellway and my trusty companion didn’t arrive, instead replaced by the Bell Eater. Luckily, I had nothing to worry about, as after confronting the monstrous centipede-like creature and struggling, the Beast emerges and takes it down. Reunited with her companion, she introduces her litter of adorable children, and the five of them sing as Hornet plays the Needolin.
The Bell Beast has a reason to protect Pharloom – she’s a mother. Acting as a mirror to Hollow Knight once again, which focused on failed father figures and broken families, Silksong casts a much wider net on the theme, encompassing mothers and mother-like figures from every corner of life. From the Moss Mother to the splinters and the ants, as anyone who walked into Hunter’s March early on and got battered to death knows, family and motherhood is the heart of Silksong.
Speaking of the ants, the once-great leader, Skarrsinger Karmelita (matriarchal ants, remember?), is among the strongest characters I faced in Silksong. Before diving into her memory, she asks Hornet, “My strength... my power... Could you claim it, pale beast? Are you so strong?...”, which is pretty apt because in her prime, Karmelita humbled me with both her aria and her battle prowess for hours. Given that she was the only leader who could protect her tribe from the allure of the silk (for a time) thanks to the power of her voice, her strength should be no surprise.
She is a mix of stereotypical masculine and feminine qualities, but her position as matriarch, as leader, is undeniable. Graceful, respectful, and with hundreds of loyal followers who support and protect her, she’s a great contrast to the aptly-named Grand Mother Silk, the figure behind all of Pharloom's ills. Where Karmelita cares about her tribe, Grand Mother wishes only to be the absolute ruler.
As a pale higher being who was abandoned by her “daughters” (the Weavers), Grand Mother Silk is haunting the silk and using her power to get people to worship her, driving them mad. She even goes as far as to fashion more children from silk to love her. One of those is Lace, a dutiful daughter driven mad by her desire to simply make her mother happy. She is the child of a mother who has done many bad things, burdened with the weight of those sins and the choices she has to make for her parental figure, including bringing Hornet to Pharloom to satisfy her.
Eventually, it drives Lace to self-loathing: If you play the Needolin during the second fight with her in The Cradle, she’ll sing “Why her... Mother… See me cut! See me serve!” Eventually, Lace rebels and at the start of Act 3, she cuts her mother’s arm off to free Hornet from falling into the Void. Lace instead goes down, but her mother does make one sacrifice: she cocoons Lace to protect her as best as she can, at the gradual cost of her soul.
Lace’s attempt at breaking free from her mother, of lashing out at her, results in her becoming dependent on her. Pharloom is still ensnared by the pale mother’s silken grip, now tainted with the darkness below. And it’s only right that Lace is saved by Hornet at the end, pulled from the Void and allowed to live freely. Lace made that choice by cutting her mother’s arm off, and Hornet allows her to see that choice through.
Women breaking free and taking a stand happens throughout Silksong; Shakra and the Bell Beast were just two examples, and while it isn’t exclusive to women, it does feel different when framed through their struggles.
Even Hornet’s journey, beyond simply freeing Pharloom, is about breaking free and retaining her agency. Slapping Nuu at the first signs of approach or scolding Kratt after he spies on her in the flea spa are a few simple moments of this – ones that made me chuckle at first, but later realise just how important they were to maintaining Silksong’s respect for its female characters.
This respect stretches to the path to the Cursed Child ending and getting the Witch Crest. This involves putting Hornet through a horrendous experience that “curses” her after a parasite is forcibly inserted into her body. It completely changes how Hornet’s body functions and how she plays – she can’t heal, she can’t use tools, and she can’t use Silk Skills.
With this “curse”, Hornet can either defeat Grand Mother Silk, or she can seek the help of Yarnaby, a disgraced doctor who was kicked out of Bellhart because of her practices. It’s a not-subtle story about bodily autonomy, forced motherhood, and overcoming trauma. Yarnaby, an outcast, extracts the “curse” from Hornet, which in turn gives you the Witch Crest.
We all know the historical connotations of the word 'witch', especially related to women and the persecution we (and many others) have so often faced when branded with that term. But quests like this remind us that choice is a powerful thing and, if we have the space to make a choice, we should, for we — everyone — define ourselves by our choices.
Without womanhood, and without its women, Silksong would be a very different game. It ties into all of the thematic riches of the narrative beautifully, and there are so many powerful women throughout Pharloom, beyond even the few I’ve talked about, such as Jubilana, Neyleth, and the Forge Daughter.
When I reflect on Silksong, I think about all the girls who grew up playing video games, particularly Metroid. Seeing Samus remove her suit for the first time must have been incredible; I knew about this ‘twist’ before playing any game, and it still felt incredible to be playing as a woman with power and autonomy in a way few other games have since.
Hornet might just be “a bug”, but her journey throughout Pharloom is an important one for women. We’re not perfect beings, and Silksong isn’t shy about saying that. Hornet herself messes up in not recognising the Snail Shaman’s plans to use the Void to trap Grand Mother Silk. But she makes a choice to save these people, to liberate those who have suffered under the silken thread for so long. To free herself of the curse. To save Lace and let her live her own life.
Amidst the oppression of Pharloom, there is hope, there is a chance to break free. And the women will lead the charge.
Did you enjoy Silksong in 2025? Will you be grabbing the Sea of Sorrow DLC whenever it arrives? Let us know.