I hope you are willing to hear a hollow knight theory.
So, Broken Vessel shows some "life" before kicking the bucket after being"cleaned" of the infection puppeteering its body.
And knows nail arts. While they are a mere puppet during their boss fight. We can see them use Dash Slash, at the very least. In the boss fight.
So, what if Broken Vessel was this unknown Esmy that Sly was following in his infected dreams when we woke him up and sent him back to his shop.
Esmy the broken vessel, a named vessel. Wonder where'd they get the name from. How would Sly know it since Vessels can't speak?
What if, Esmy the broken vessel was a adopted child of Sly. Maybe not adopted per say but taken in by him at the very least.
Learned nail arts alongside the nail masters, and stayed with Sly until something drew both them and consequently Sly. Down into the earth
Broken Vessel, or Esmy is one of three surviving vessels we run into. Who may not be alive for long but still, they lived through the boss fight only to stare up and reach towards us after being freed from the infection. Then they slump, never to move again.
Another vessel we know nothing about, yet could've ran into if Hornet didn't get to them first. Was the vessel slain by Hornet (Don't know who else at that point would impale the vessel with its own nail so hornet is my best bet.)
Only theory I have on it is that. Someone taught it how to stitch if it made the cloak itself, otherwise someone gave it the cloak either as a gift or as a transaction. Maybe Moth and Esmy had a sibling relationship under Sly as hands for his shop?
I love the vessels so I wanted to run some thoughts on these two, unknown, possibly child-like automatons of Void and Soul.
I am always willing to hear a hollow knight theory.
This makes the Broken Vessel fight all the more heartbreaking and I am here for it.
The idea that what was keeping Sly trapped in his own mind, slowly being over taken by the infection, being him searching for his missing child is just really good. And it would make sense as well.
I imagine that Esmy felt compelled to venture into the depths because well the Little Ghost is, so I see it as something all vessels just need to do. An innate desire if you will. So Sly would follow after them, possibly Esmy was the last of the his children to leave and Sly had grown worried. He seems to know where the other nail masters are but where could Esmy have gone?
And they reach out in their final moments of lucidity because they recognize something about the Ghost. Be it that they are the same or maybe it’s in the way they fight. Reminiscent of their family they didn’t get to say goodbye to.
I get the impression that the Broken Vessel and the one found in Greenpath did not know of each other. We are still unsure how any of the vessels even escaped the Abyss. At least if my memory serves correct.
It’s possible they helped each other but I see the vessels not wanting to be around one another. There is nothing to gain with further interaction because they are made of god and void. Empty creatures waiting to be filled. They would not gain that from another vessel. So they part and find something that will belong to them. That will give them something that will fill that void that was forced upon them.
