Is Hornet aware of how much she's changed since becoming a pale being?
This is gonna be a long post about hornet's new identity beware!! :)
Yes and no.
The Wulfmaiden is aware that she has, and is, quite changed. In fact, she not only feels that her change was necessary, the logical next step in the fulfillment of her divine birthright, but also that she is, in a way, a separate person from the Hornet that came before her. That she has not only metaphorically but also literally been reborn, and now represents a being entirely other, though perhaps carrying the blueprint, memories, tendencies, and legacy of the other.
In my original posts on Wulfmaiden I wasn't often capitalizing Hornet (I do now, this isn't some symbolic change I just couldn't handle not capitalizing proper nouns lmfao) because I don't really see Wulfmaiden and Hornet as the same person (the name Hornet was mostly for our convenience than a name you could actually refer to her by*). Wulf doesn't either, and if Hornet was still alive in the way she was before, she would DEFINITELY not see them as the same. The Wulfmaiden would be to canon Hornet a perversion of her traits, taken over by some sort of silken parasite. She's only partially wrong about this, and the Pale Huntress's combined crests is an indication of this.
(*I want to get into this more but for now: I briefly mentioned in Lace's post (I can't remember if it was in the body or the tags???? idk) that I LOVE the headcanon/kind of canon that Lace and Hornet don't know each other's names. The consequences of this in Wulfmaiden are funny but also extremely damning. The Wulf eventually learns Lace's name in passing, perhaps because Lace talks to herself or because other Pharloom residents know her name or something, but continues to call her "Pale Thing" or "Pale Child" or some variation. "Lace" is for when she's mad or it's important or whatever. If this was Hornet, Lace's actual name would at once become her default, but our new epic weaver queen unfortunately doesn't view Lace with quite the same amount of respect that Hornet would! The Wulf sees Lace as a person (yay!!!) but as a subordinate (aw....)...
...However, for Lace, the first thing she knows Hornet as other than "spider" is Wulfmaiden. Pale Huntress. Grand Weaver. Godly and monarchic epithets were names Lace had available to her sooner than "Hornet". Because Wulfmaiden!Hornet responds more readily to her new titles rather than her old given name, others in Pharloom who have the memory of the once-hornet have no effect on what Lace calls the new queen. tl;dr Lace sees Wulfmaiden as Wulfmaiden, not Hornet transformed, and she never got the chance to get to know Hornet. Sad face...)
In a word, the Wulfmaiden knows she is different than Hornet, but in the way that she sees herself as evolved and distinct. This change is something she is proud of and that is important to her. To her, to compare her to her former life would be to compare Herrah to a Pharlid. So that's the yes, but what about the no?
I have also touched on a bit that I believe higher beings don't have a particularly strong connection to what is right and wrong by mortal standards or what are appropriate degrees of action/reaction to anything, except for keeping up appearances, if appearances is something they're even aware of or concerned about. PK cared about being viewed as "good", but, obviously, the actions he took were extreme and reprehensible, even if to save what looked to be a thriving nation with fairly advantageous diplomatic relations. The White Lady was in a position to realize her wrongdoings, and even took steps to be more morally conscious - though, in proper higher being fashion, took the strange and perhaps rash path of locking herself up in a seal of binding and then residing in a gnarled hovel away from the city proper, guarded at the door. Whether the latter two are just a symbol of her status, I don't know, but I like to think all of these actions were her worried about doing what she and the King had done again.
They are the better half of the higher beings though imo in terms of showing any sort of remorse or understanding of their actions. The Nightmare Heart only engages with mortal bugs insofar as it requires a vessel to perpetuate its violent existence. Radiance is kind of sort of the main antagonist of the first game and plagued an entire kingdom with her sickening grasp. GMS has SO much shit going on and is not only one of the more anthropomorphized higher beings in her desires and actions, but also uses that anthropomorphization for evil like desperately trying to make the best kid, at the total and complete expense of the wellbeing of a single individual in Pharloom.
Even the "better" ones, though, did things like mass producing kids in the mass producing kids factory and shoving void in them in the hopes of using one as a complete container for the most widespread and painful illness ever witnessed by Hallownest and to throw the rest of them in the mass produced kids hole, then barricade the hole. I digress: I think it's fair to say that higher beings have a tenuous grasp at BEST on the affairs of the mortal and morality in a mortal view (except Unn, who seems above it all, but remains Chill. One could argue though that even she could have a better presence in the lives of bugs than she currently does: "Hidden Unn, we need you now. We grow tired away from you. Our leaves are falling." But we aren't here to criticize the slug).
That whole tirade is to provide a foundation for the Wulfmaiden's current personality, actions, and state of mind. Upon becoming godlike, while it didn't make her straight up evil, her willing compassion, mortal empathy, and involvement in the little details of bugs' lives were lost - it didn't help that these things were already kind of suppressed in Hornet. This is something she is not and cannot be aware of, except for the passing memory that she used to, for whatever reason, go on teensy tiny side quests. It just happened.
It would be like if you lost your sense of taste and then suddenly forgot what the concept of tasting was, and what things tasted like, and became unaware that you ever had tasted things or what taste even is or means, except for a fleeting a recollection that at one point in your life you ate things and experienced a unique sensation when you did.
The Wulfmaiden doesn't think oh, I used to be kinder and gentler. A higher being cannot be fully aware of their separation in mind to the mortal bug. If someone, for example, suggested that she engage in little trifles and conduct small talk with her subjects, her response wouldn't be "I'm above those meager things", it would be "I have no idea what you're talking about". She also has a difficult time understanding what she lacks, and believes she is the highest judge and the highest justiciar, and flaws in her plans and methods are begrudgingly admitted only after they exhibit tangible failure. But she isn't unfeeling. She laughs, she gets angry, she has desires that are inexplicable if not taken into context with her former life - she wants to go home. She likes soft things. She enjoys games. She is by no means solely an arbiter of violence.
I think the best way to describe her now is that she, like many other higher beings, lacks nuance in a lot of her ways of thinking, and is pretty much incapable of recognizing this. Things are her enemy or her friend with few exceptions. She will pursue her ambitions unwaveringly until she seems them completed. Outcomes are beneficial to her (and her kingdom - though, as she describes in my Eva dialogue, she herself and her kingdom as synonymous) or not, and these dictate how she behaves. She is either all-in on things that are important to her, and all-out on things that aren't - you'll never see her pursue positive diplomacy beyond what's necessary for her own intentions, as she could sooner just stamp out those who oppose her. But as you can see by my many convoluted paragraphs in this response, it's really hard to describe or explain her in this new state. She's partially clairvoyant. She knows things that are impossible to know. It's very eldritch, the way her freaky weaver brain works now.
(And on that note: I don't want to make people with lacking empathy out to be evil or morally bankrupt or something. Wulfmaiden!Hornet has traits that make her a bad person other than her struggles with understanding those around her, especially since, like I mentioned, Hornet also seems to have this issue. I also don't want to conflate Strange Ineffable God with regular people - what's going on with the Wulfmaiden is a different circumstance, otherworldly and difficult to describe. While Hornet, I'd argue, was a regular person (as much as a princess demigod can be) who struggled at times with feeling what others felt, the Wulf is on a whole other sphere.)
So, yeah, the Wulfmaiden knows that she is changed, but she doesn't see it as she was Hornet, and then lost and gained parts of her upon her ascension. Rather, she thinks herself a new being completely, an objectively better being, and is not able in a very literal sense to see the world the way she did when she was Hornet. She more knows she is now Greater than she is aware of those aspects of her that are no longer her. It is of no concern to her; Hornet was hesitant of becoming who she could be. Hornet kept her instincts controlled and choked. Hornet could have, if she wanted to, let her strength bloom into the sharp-clawed, ruthless beast and unshakable ruler Wulfmaiden has now become.
And, no, as she begins to spiral, as her distance from mortality widens, and as her actions and commands become more severe, she does not see herself getting worse. It will be a slow and subtle decline.
