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So the lore tablets in the Archive are one
of the biggest mysteries in all of Hollow

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Knight.

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On the surface, they don’t seem to make
a lick of goddamn sense.

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But if we can channel our inner high school
English class student, we can do a little

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“close reading” to try and figure out
what it all means.

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Now if you’ve ever read the popular nonfiction
work of George Orwell entitled “1984”,

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then the syntax of these tablets will probably
be familiar to you.

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The tablets don’t form complete sentences.

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Instead, we have to look at the keywords and
the order in which they appear to try and

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decipher their meaning.

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There are also just seemly random words and
letters that I think we should just completely

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ignore like ABA, EM, CH, O and THIR.

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But maybe if we rearrange these letters, it
will form an anagram that will help us uncover

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more of Hollow Knight’s lore.

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Holy shit!

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[X-Files Theme intesifies]

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This first tablet is discussing the sealing
of the Temple of the Black Egg, where the

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Hollow Knight can be found in the final game.

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For this first line, the use of the words
“yolk” and “shell” point us to the

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Black Egg Temple.

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This temple is then used to “gate” the
Hollow Knight so that it remains separated

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from the rest of the world.

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The second line gives us an idea of the order
of containment.

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The Radiance, or the Light, is sealed inside
the Vessel, which is sealed inside the Temple

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of the Black Egg, which has a seal placed
over it.

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As for this third line, it is explaining that
the seal over the exterior of the temple is

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hidden within the Dreamers, Herrah, Monomon
and Lurien.

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“Intwixt” and “Atwist” must be some
weird Australian slang Team Cherry decided

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to use, because here in America, they aren’t
real words.

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I’m guessing they are variations of the
word betwixt, which just means between.

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In other words, all of this is occurring between
the realms of the physical world and the Dream

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world.

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Finally, this will lead to the containment
of the Radiance, and the end to her “ungrowth”.

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The second lore tablet is describing the difference
between the Pale King and the Radiance.

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In this first line, it is explaining how the
Pale King, or the “Kinglight” is responsible

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for growth and granting the bugs of Hallownest
the ability to think freely.

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“Inkind” likely means the inclusion of
different kinds, or in other words variety,

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since all of the bugs can think for themselves.

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Then there’s the word “Enfield”.

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My best guess for this word is that it is
referencing a suburb in Adelaide, South Australia,

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the city that Team Cherry is based in.

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So is Team Cherry trying to tell us that Monomon
is actually aware of the fact that she is

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in a video game?

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I mean, that seems like the cool hip thing
for indie devs to do nowadays.

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Of course, the Shrine of Believers basically
confirms that Hallownest was created by a

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group of beings from a different dimension,
or in other words, by humans on Earth, so

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it’s really not that big of a stretch.

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But the more likely explanation for the use
of the word Enfield in this tablet is that

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Team Cherry is just fucking with us once again.

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I mean, that would also explain the text on
this tablet too.

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The next line in Monomon’s poem tells us
that the Radiance, or the “Oldlight”,

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who is tied to dreams and essence, leads to
ungrowth.

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We can assume that by ungrowth, Monomon is
talking about how the Radiance causes her

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subjects to lose their own thoughts, and become
connected to her hivemind.

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This third line confuses me.

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The Radiance will likely be responsible for
this endthink, but I’m unsure about what

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themkin is referring to.

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The moths are the kin of the Radiance, while
the Vessels are the kin of the Pale King.

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Either way, I’m not sure what is being implied
here.

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The last line is pretty straightforward though.

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If the Radiance’s powers are left uncontained,
it will result in an end to life as the bugs

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of Hallownest know it.

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This final tablet is about the creation of
the vessels.

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This first line is saying that there is an
abundance of outer shells that have absent

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innards.

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The next line says that void should be placed
within the absences, or within the outer shell.

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At this point, I’d like to say that I think
that the shell Monomon is referring to is

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the shell that Vessels wear on their heads.

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Some people call these things masks, but if
you look at the Hollow Knight instruction

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manual, like I’m sure everybody did, it
states that the Knight wears a shell, which

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has a strength represented in masks.

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Now, is it really that important of a distinction?

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Well, yeah!

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Everything is important in this game!

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Even this bitch!

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The third line explains that the shells and
the void should be weaved together.

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Now there are two words in here that raise
a couple of red flags.

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First, let’s talk about “Mater”.

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Mater is an old fashioned word for mother,
so I’m guessing that Monomon is talking

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about the White Lady, since, in my opinion,
she helped create the empty shells that would

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be used to create the Vessels.

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The word “weave” is also interesting,
because in the game, there is a group of beings

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called the Weavers.

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Unfortunately, the Weavers seemed to have
noped the fuck out of Hallownest before the

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game started, so we can’t really ask them
or anything.

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We do know from Midwife that the weavers are
capable of creating spells.

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Is it possible that the Weavers helped create
the vessels?

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Well, the Vessels are already part Pale King,
part White Lady, and part Void.

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And now we want to add the Weavers in too?

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Well, I guess...why the fuck not?

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Maybe Elder Bug was involved too.

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Maybe the Vessels are 2% Fungoon shit!

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As for this last line, it is basically saying
that the Void of the Vessel is contained by

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the outer part, or the shell.

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I’m not quite sure what “peer is referring
to.

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Maybe it is just saying that the Vessels are
peers, or of equal status, or it could mean

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peer as in looking intently.

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Not quite sure, honestly.

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Okay cool, so the three lore tablets in the
Archive all pertain to the plan used to try

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and stop the Radiance.

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This means one of three things.

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Either the Pale King told Monomon about this
plan, she found out about it on her own, or

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she actually helped the Pale King devise the
plan.

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I think it’s safe to say she didn’t find
out on her own.

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I mean, that’s a really specific plan.

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That’s like pissing into a water glass from
atop the empire state building.

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So maybe the Pale King told her the plan.

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This is possible, but why would he tell her
the plan if all she had to do was go to sleep

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as a Dreamer?

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I mean, maybe she just wanted to know out
of curiosity, or needed to be convinced.

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After all, she is pretty much dying for this
whole thing.

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But that’s a boring explanation, and I’m
trying to make a lore video here that is long

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enough to make at least three more dick and
shit jokes.

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So, let’s just say “no” to that theory.

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But honestly, I do think there is a good case
to make that Monomon was involved with the

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Pale King’s plan from the beginning.

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Why is that?

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Well, there’s one damning piece of evidence
that supports this.

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The fucking jellyfish.

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Now in my first video, I asked a fair question
about why jellyfish were in a game about bugs.

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The obvious answer to this question was that
the jellyfish are merely Team Cherry’s way

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of pay homage to another famous game with
jellyfish creatures; SpongeBob SquarePants:

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Revenge of the Flying Dutchman.

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But when I asked the question, I meant it
from a lore perspective.

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Well, there is a lore explanation that has
been around for a while, and it does make

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sense, even if it is kind of speculative.

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I do like it though because it fits in nicely
with what we have talked about so far in the

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video.

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The jellyfish are Monomon’s artificial creations.

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The Hunter posits a few theories as to what
the jellyfish are, saying they might be the

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spirit of a dead ancestor, the brain of a
larger creature, or some kind of egg.

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Well, these are all wrong, and are clearly
a clever red herring by Team Cherry to mislead

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us as to the jellyfishes' true nature.

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In all of their Dream Nail dialogue, these
things keep mentioning Monomon.

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And the Hunter’s Journal entry for Uumuu
claims that Uumuu is acting as a guardian

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for Monomon.

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And that there are strange and unnatural things
lurking in the Fog Canyon.

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So it’s unlikely that these things have
any origins stemming from nature.

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Now I know what you’re thinking.

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This might be a clever red herring by Team
Cherry to mislead us as to the jellyfishes’

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true nature.

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But that’s stupid.

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There’s no reason Team Cherry would ever
do something like that.

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Also, why is Monomon keeping these charged
Lumaflies inside of a tank?

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Is it because electricity is an important
component in the process of creating life?

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And just look at the structure that Monomon
has in the heart of the Archive.

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It’s a giant test tube.

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Clearly this was used to create her unholy
gelatinous abominations.

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Okay, so let’s say that the jellyfish are
indeed the results of Monomon’s Frankenstein-esc

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experiments.

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What does that have to do with Monomon helping
the Pale King?

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Well, Monomon’s actions here seem pretty
similar to how the Pale King was creating

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intelligent void Vessels and constructs.

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So it’s possible that Monomon actually did
work with the Pale King to help conduct his

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experiments, since she was basically doing
the exact same thing, animating matter.

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But it is hard to say, since we don’t really
know how the jellyfish were actually created.

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The King poured the liquidy, goopy void it
into a mold to create his constructs, while

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we have no idea how Monomon created the jellyfish
children.

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Regardless, it works thematically, which I
know sounds like a cop out, but that’s just

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because it is one.

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And there you have it.

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The lore tablets in the Archive basically
spell out the details of the Pale King’s

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plan to contain the Radiance.

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The three tablets reinforce our understanding
of the lore, but for the most part, they don’t

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really add anything new to what we already
know.

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The only thing mentioned in these tablets
that sort of affects our view of the lore

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is the inclusion of the word “weave”.

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Overall, the most important thing about these
tablets is what implications they have on

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Monomon’s involvement with the Pale King’s
plan to save Hallownest.

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Now if you haven’t seen my first Hollow
Knight lore video, I highly recommend you

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check it out.

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It is a very informative video that covers
a lot of Hollow Knight’s lore.

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If you have seen my video, I should tell you
that it’s complete shit and full of inaccurate

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claims.

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In that video, I talked about how the Pale
King approached the three Dreamers after they

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had already tried to lock away the Radiance
inside of the Hollow Knight.

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Oh, how naive I was in my youth.

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Now that I am older and wiser, I think it’s
more likely that the dreamers were involved

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early on, and that Monomon was especially
involved from the beginning.

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I think a lot of this confusion over the Hollow
Knight timeline will be cleared up in the

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upcoming Hornet DLC, since I’m like 93.5%
sure that it’s a prequel, but until then,

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we’ll just have to work with the breadcrumbs
that Team Cherry has left for us.