#vorlon

One of the few times I've hated having to put in my watermark, but honestly it's not that out of place in a 90s sci-fi 'shows up in the background' style ad. Also, story's been updated.

Welcome back to part 2 of my Monomon essay where we are discussing the possible inspiration behind our favorite Jellyfish!

If you haven't read part 1, please click here:

Picking up where we left off, the roles of Kosh and Monomon!

As a Hollow Knight and Babylon 5 fan, I can share the roles of both Monomon and Kosh than anyone watching a trailer, or even the first 2 hours of the game and show. Though Monomon became a Dreamer and Kosh was the Vorlon Ambassador, their true calling was shaping the next generation. Despite the lack of seen classrooms in the Teacher’s Archives, we know that Monomon was indeed a teacher and had students, one of whom was Quirrel.  Kosh, now, was more than just the Speaker of the Vorlon’s will as the Ambassador. Kosh had a duty as a Vorlon to mentor the Younger Races, to guide and develop them. These are the two roles directly confirmed by the canon sources.

There are other roles that the fandom associated with both Monomon and Kosh, and not unfoundedly. In my previous essay, I theorized that Monomon was a negotiator, not unlike Kosh. This theory, I shall not focus within this paragraph. Instead, I will focus on the role of parent. It was incredibly easy for the Hollow Knight fandom to start calling Monomon MonoMOM. I am afraid all the evidence I have on this are two things: 1) the relationship between SOME real-life teachers and their students and 2) fan comics. As for Kosh, the fans have much more to work with. Remember how I told you about how almost nobody sees Kosh’s true form of squid-octopus thing? Instead they see the default “being of light”?

There are two times, however, when Kosh chooses a different form to appear as. These times are much more personal and intimate for Kosh as he is communicating directly with their minds instead of simply broadcasting. The forms he chose?

The characters’ dads. Now, the creator of the show tells us that Kosh took these forms for manipulative purposes, but the fans watch what Kosh does with these forms and rightly call out Kosh as a dad.  Do you recall that picture of Kosh disguised as an elderly human? In that scene, he is apologizing to John Sherdian for how he has been acting, for his pride and fear, and that John shouldn’t blame himself for what happens later. Spoilers, that thing that happens later is only Kosh getting murdered! And that later is during this conversation!

If you allow me to back up, this conversation was a follow up conversation to where John Sherdian pushed Kosh to let him actually fight the Shadow War his way, not the way the Vorlons have been playing it for a thousand years. Kosh, for the first time in the TV show, was deeply afraid and at first refused. Only when John pushed him did our Kosh relent…fully knowing that he would die for this decision. So the picture you saw was Kosh being a good dad and letting John know he was not responsible for Kosh’s death.

Moving on, please recall the picture with the non-humans, the Narn Ga’Kar and the disguised Kosh as Ga’Kar’s dad. At first, this picture is not seen as Kosh being a dad. In fact, we must watch all the way to the fourth season in Babylon 5 before we can fully understand this scene. Leading up to this scene, we watch the Narns, as seen above, and the Centauri feud with one another. This feud is a result of the Centauri invading and enslaving the entire Narn race. Ga’Kar was one of the Narns who led the freedom fighters and freed his homeworld. By this point in the show, the Narn and Centauri War has already occurred and the Narns lost, badly. They were enslaved again and terribly oppressed. And there was Ga’Kar, free but trapped by Sanctuary. Not able to fight the way he wants too, he finds a possible weapon and uses it on the Centauri ambassador ready to do the worst. And the worst he does by telepathically getting into the ambassador’s mind and starts tearing it apart for answers. That’s where Kosh steps in.

Kosh begs Ga’Kar to let go of his hate and anger, pleading to stop continuing the cycle of blood and death.  To quote Kosh, “It no longer matters who started it. All that matters is Suffering.” The fans then focus on the next part of the conversation where Kosh explains the Narns will need to make a great sacrifice to save them all, connecting it to the Shadow War and how all will need to fight together or all die. The fans, however, did not connect the words “It no longer matters who started it. All that matters is Suffering.” to the Shadow War until Season Four. It was not only the Narns and Centauri who were in a bitter cycle of hate and blood; the Vorlons and the Shadows were too. A cycle of wars that repeated every thousand years…a cycle that Kosh has fought in numerous times over, a cycle that he is the only one to realize it needs to stop. Here, Kosh is being a dad by pleading with his son not to repeat his mistakes. Yet Kosh steps back and lets Ga’Kar make the final choice, as fathers must someday do for their children.

Why am I taking such care to explain these pictures in detail, especially the part about the cycle and children breaking the cycle? Because I came to the horrifying realization that Monomon and Kosh did not just share similar forms or roles. They both serve as the catalyst in their stories to break a never-ending cycle.

In this next part, I shall discuss what the never-ending cycles are, how Monomon and Kosh were involved in the cycle, and then who ultimately breaks the cycle. Yes, Monomon and Kosh are the first to defy the cycle, but their defiance leads to the ultimate breakers of the cycle. And I haven’t even touched on how both Monomon and Kosh found a loophole to cheat Death and employed it just for the cycle. 🤣

 The never-ending cycles in Hollow Knight and Babylon 5 are a battle for allegiance, not just to a figure-head or group, but also between two rival ideologies. For Hollow Knight, the battle and cycle is centered around the Pale King and the Radiance. For Babylon 5, the cycle centers around the Vorlons and the Shadows. In Babylon 5, the Vorlons and Shadows are fighting for their individual ideologies: the Vorlons in strength and growth through Order and Discipline; the Shadows in strength and growth through Chaos and Conflict. You see this reflected in the Vorlon and Shadow’s questions, technology, and allies. Oh! And you could call Vorlons Higher Beings and argue for the Shadows being Higher beings as well.  In Hollow Knight, it is easy to see the fight between the Pale King and the Radiance as a terf war between two giants gone terribly wrong, to put it mildly. Yet if you look deeper, you see the Radiance’s ideology of Dreams, Denial of Death, and maybe a little bit of chaos in there. All of this as long as you are part of a hivemind and have no mind to think. As for the Pale King, you have Rationality, Innovation, and above all, Order.  Hallownest first belonged to the Radiance, then the kingdom of the Pale King, and then the Radiance’s Infection, the Pale King’s Vessel plan, then the return of the Infection.  As for the Vorlons and Shadows, their wars became a cycle repeated every thousand years...

Both Monomon and Kosh participated in these cycles and wars. In fact, both Monomon and Kosh undergo character development due to this participation. In the beginning, both Kosh and Monomon are so caught up in the cycle that they don’t realize they are continuing it. How can they when Monomon is losing students left and right to the Infection and Kosh must stop the Shadows from encouraging the destruction of several races?  So Kosh wins wars and leaves it at that, not stopping to think of what could end the wars completely.  Monomon, meanwhile, becomes a Dreamer to seal away the Radiance, unaware that the Radiance will slip through anyway. Despite this, Monomon still comes up with ways to prevent anyone from destroying the seals, going even further than either Herrah or Lurien. Neither Monomon nor Kosh are afraid for themselves as they participate in these cycles are they both have a loophole to cheat Death.

The loophole? Something strange that I don’t see enough fans from either fandom talk about. Let’s start with Monomon.

How come we Hollow Knight fans take for granted that Monomon removed her entire upper half, locked it inside her mask, gave it to Quirrel for safekeeping, and would have kept the seals going even if Lurien and Herrah were killed because she sent Quirrel away?

No, I am serious. Why is it I have only realized this six years after becoming a Hollow Knight fan?

Anyways…does anyone know how weird this is? All the other things we talked about Monomon: her species, her tech, her architecture; all of those things can be explained due to Monomon being a foreigner to Hallownest. Her mask, however, acting as additional protection upon the seals? That allows her to communicate with Quirrel, see what he experiences AND strengthen him that he doesn’t feel pain or fatigue due to old age? Why is Monomon the only one we see doing this?!

This is a serious question. Why would Lurien the Watcher not use this additional protection for himself? The bug did have all 16 Watcher Knights block any intruders from reaching him. What about Herrah? Why wouldn’t she give her mask to Hornet so she could be close to her only child? Why not the Pale King or Soul Master do this for immortality? Not even Mask Maker mentions anything about this!

(Side note: there is dialogue from an unmasked Mask Maker that reads “To change a face; to conceal it fully within another... A powerful protection that is, but one with sad consequence. The original mind is destroyed, though those of striking will may still retain a sliver of that concealed self.”  Yet I hesitate to apply it to Quirrel and Monomon’s situation as such an action feels off. Monomon isn’t concealing her face, she gave it to Quirrel who still retains his own mask. If anything, this dialogue seems to apply to either the baby vessels whose identity as the Royal Couple’s children has been stripped when thrown into the void OR {and most likely} the members of the Grimm Troupe. Grimm isn’t part of this this essay, so I shall end this here.)

The closest parallel I have found anywhere to Monomon’s Loophole to cheat Death is in Kosh’s biology. For you see, it is very difficult to kill a Vorlon. They have ascended as a species to become energy beings. To kill a Vorlon, you either need another Vorlon or a Shadow to slice apart the target. Even so, Kosh cheated death using a loophole unique to his species. Remember this scene?

As far as we can tell, that is when Kosh put a piece of his own soul into John Sheridan. So when Kosh died 30 seconds later, part of him lived on through John Sheridan. Kosh knew that John would go to the homeworld of the Shadows and die there; so as a dad, he made certain that he would still be there to support him. And spoilers, John DID die at Z’ha’dum, but due to Kosh’s spirit being within him, Sheridan was kept “alive” long enough for THE First One, Lorien, to come and revive John. (Side note: Yes. Pronounced the exact same way as a certain Watcher. Different spelling though.)

Two mentors who glow, have tentacles, and fight in a war of higher beings? That’s just three coincidences that could occur anywhere. A Loophole that can cheat Death, however? And the same Loophole aids the mentor’s apprentice? THAT’S weird. The only way I can explain these parallels is if Team Cherry was inspired to create Monomon by watching Kosh in Babylon 5.  

And the parallels continue.

Both Monomon and Kosh parallel each other in their character development, especially in terms of the cycle of Higher Being warfare. At first, both Monomon and Kosh are insistent with the cycle continuing, though they were unaware of their actions are simply continuing the cycle of war. Monomon believes the cycle of warfare between the Radiance and Hallownest will end if she becomes a Dreamer. She goes so far to even use the Loophole of giving her mask to Quirrel so no one could completely destroy the seals upon the Infection. She is steadfast in her stance. Yet in game, she is the one who is insistent that the seals be destroyed, much to Lurien’s annoyance! Something changed. That something was watching all her students except Quirrel die one by one due to the Infection while she was trapped as a Dreamer. She had nothing left to fight for, freeing her from the blind pursuit of continuing the Pale King’s plan. Nothing changed despite Monomon becoming a Dreamer. So Monomon made sure something changed, not just so she could die at long last, but specifically that the statis could end. The Radiance must be either resealed by a better vessel or defeated once and for all. Both courses of action require Monomon and the other Dreamers out of the way…unless we go to Godhome before killing the Dreamers.

Though it took Monomon losing all but one student to change course, Kosh didn’t change because he lost people. Kosh changed because he gained friends. You see, Kosh is really, really, Really old. You think Master Yoda is old, dying close to 900? Amateur numbers compared to Kosh who, according to the fan wiki, was most likely born 1 million B.C. and died 2260 A.D. He fought actively in the various Shadow Wars, content in the cycle that the Vorlons and Shadows fell into…until the last Shadow War taking place officially 2260-2261 A.D., though the build-up to the war lasted a whole decade. In that decade, Kosh made contact with the Minbari, became the ambassador to station Babylon 5, and became close with the younger races. Kosh, in particular, became close to John Sherdian, Delenn, Lyta Alexander, Jeffery Sinclar, and Ga’Kar. But it was John who pushed Kosh the most to change. Before, the Vorlons were very distant and anti-confrontational; having their rules and game plans and perfectly content with them. Problem: these game plans would result in unnecessary deaths of the Younger Races and the Shadows would rise up again. Kosh, through his constant contact with the Younger Races, could see how destructive the cycle of warfare was. And he had enough of the Younger Races paying for the sins of the Vorlons and the Shadows.

Both Monomon and Kosh had enough and were the first to defy the cycle of warfare. Yet neither were the ones who truly broke the cycle. Monomon and Kosh set up for the main characters to destroy the cycle once and for all.

Why is this important? Because in both Babylon 5 and Hollow Knight, the reason the universe is the way is it is due to the adults in the universe failing to be the adults. In Hollow Knight, the terf war between the Radiance and Pale King should have escalated to the point it did, but the Radiance’s wrath and the Pale King’s pride refused to stop it. In Babylon 5, the original jobs of both the Vorlons and the Shadows was to be the parents or mentors of the Younger Races, teaching them to become the best version of themselves. Yet the Shadows and Vorlons let their duty become nothing more than “Who’s right? Chaos or Order?” than actually parenting the Younger Races.   While Monomon and Kosh first believed continuing the cycles of destruction and ignoring the real problems would work, they realized that they needed to change so that the universe could live. They could not undo the total pain caused by the Pale King, Radiance, Vorlons, and the Shadows, but they could still do what they could to give the next generation a fighting chance to change everything.

And what do you know but that next generation are children who have grown up and are tired of being used?

Kosh’s sacrifice gave John Sherdian and the Army of Light the room and understanding needed to step up to both the Vorlons and the Shadows to say “Get the #e^* out of our Galaxy!”  No more parents forcing the child to watch them fight and then forcing the child to decide who is right. No, the child will make one’s own decisions now.

Now, what children could be in Hallownest? What children would be absolutely done with both the Pale King and the Radiance? How about those who were thrown away for not being perfect for the Pale King?

And the perfect one being abandoned?

And the Radiance who would send her hivermind to chase down any void child?

Or use them as her puppets?

And what did these Void Children do?

When you remove a dog’s ability to bark, the dog turns to biting instead to let you know what’s going on. The Pale King took away his children’s ability to speak, so they found another way to let them know how utterly done they were, staining the White Palace black…

As for the Radiance, the Void Siblings rose to Dream No More.

And yet no ending in Hollow Knight is possible without Monomon throwing you into the Dream Realm just so you could find the Dream Nail; yes, even the Mister Mushroom ending.  

So my dears, do you believe now that Monomon is inspired by the Vorlons, in particular Kosh from Babylon 5?  I hope my argument convinced you.

Again, I apologize for any mistakes or if anything was confusing in this essay. I stayed up too late multiple nights and rushed this so it would be out before Silksong, just like you readers requested. Please send prayers as I lay passed out somewhere after rushing this. And may you all have a blessed day or night, before or after Silksong comes out.