#pale lady

If we go by red memory, the first mother to show up is Herrah. Makes sense since she's the one to give birth! Now up next is Vespa, which I thought was interesting. Why wouldn't it go to the pale court and pale lady? I get for story purposes but I think it's much more interesting to think that Hornet trained under Vespa after Herrah laid herself to rest!

Think about it, Hornet could've gone through an angsty/rightfully so anger phase after Herrah laid down. Angry at the pale court, angry at the Pale King, and most of all Angry she couldn't stop it. No wonder Vespa took her in, perhaps she saw herself, perhaps she understood that rage, or perhaps she knew without the right instructions, Hornet would end up another pale being. Who knows? All we know is Vespa did the right thing and took a little girl in who was mourning her mother.

Hornets memories are so fascinating in both a narrative and meta level because the series hasn’t just abandoned Hallownest. Everything keeps coming back to it. Hornet was very young when her mother went to sleep and she barely remembers her face before the mask. Other Weavers dreamed of her potential, the daughter of a god, born of void but nothing like the husks that her siblings are, a Weaver and an heir to a kingdom. So much potential in this one child but a memory that stick in her head is her own Mother to not listen to that talk because it’s not what either of them want. Hornet doesn’t want this burden and her mother doesn’t want her to have it either.

She’s trained in the art of combat by Queen Vespa and remembers her words, telling her to stay strong because the world is too dangerous and people are too willing to hurt you if they can.

She has a memory of her time with the Pale Lady and through the power of this magic it is no longer a memory of her but the Pale Lady talks to Hornet from Hallownest itself. Honestly kinda nice that Hallownest isn’t so easily forgotten for Hornet or the series. Hallownest was the Land of Gods because that’s what the Pale King wanted. A Utopia for bug kind where even the many gods could gather. In the end it was the resentment between Pale King and a Goddess that doomed it all. Because Pale King stole from the other gods their worshippers either by choice or by accident.

It was torn apart by disease saved through a mountain of bodies and left to rot in the aftermath. The Pale Queen honestly had a pretty good stance on the whole matter, basically saying “people who look at our history will call us cruel, unrepentant and uncaring and they have a right to think that because our dream caused all this suffering” it doesn’t matter what the goal was or who The King was as a person because all that matters is the ruins left behind.

Hallownest is this version of the Tower of Babel and in spite of all of this Hornet is neither resentful nor jaded. Hornet carries hope with her for a better world and if it won’t be better on its own then she will make a better world. It’s why she never abandoned Hallownest and it’s why Her and Ghost worked together to save the world from the Radiance. The Pale Lady expected Hornet to hate everything they did and wouldn’t blame her if she did but Hornet doesn’t. Hornet doesn’t believe the Ruins left behind by the actions of The King and Pale Lady are all that matters because what truly matters is what happens after all of that. Do you pick up the pieces? Do you make up for what you did? Do you simply move past it and try and live a better life and hope redemption comes from a course correction?