0:00:11.440,0:00:16.960
Wow, look at all this Hollow Knight content I [br]have left to talk about! It really is beautiful,

0:00:16.960,0:00:22.160
isn’t it? Silksong could be delayed until [br]December and I’d still have plenty to discuss.

0:00:22.880,0:00:27.440
But until then let’s talk about one of the [br]more mysterious aspects of Hollow Knight lore,

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the Colosseum of Fools. The Colosseum is such a [br]weird part of the game, and honestly I still don’t

0:00:33.520,0:00:38.400
understand this place much at all. I mean, why [br]would people willingly get together in a crowded

0:00:38.400,0:00:45.280
area in the midst of a dangerous pandemic? Come [br]on, Team Cherry, no one would actually do that.

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Overall, the Colosseum is one of the few big [br]mysteries left in Hollow Knight, alongside things

0:00:49.920,0:00:56.400
like the Vitruvian Grub, and the Trilobite Shrine [br]in Deepnest, oh and the Mask Maker’s eyes, and the

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Lifeblood creature, and the Shade Lord, and this [br]random corpse in the Queen’s Garden. Also what the

0:01:02.240,0:01:07.200
fuck happened to Isma? Like seriously what the [br]fuck!? Since the Colosseum is so cryptic, a few

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theories have popped up trying to explain it. So [br]it might be good to have a video that just lays it

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all out, even if there isn’t any strong conclusion [br]we can make about this part of the lore.

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The Colosseum of Fools was originally a [br]Kickstarter stretch goal, which promised 4

0:01:20.560,0:01:25.760
new bosses and a chance to uncover the mystery of [br]the Colosseum. And while the stretch goal wasn’t

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actually reached, Team Cherry added the area into [br]the game right at the end of development. The four

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bosses were originally Zote, the Oblobbles, [br]and two of the regular fool enemies we fight

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multiple times. Of course, there is also the God [br]Tamer who appears at the end of the third trial.

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But she was actually just a Kickstarter [br]backer boss that was placed in the Colosseum.

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The original boss design was the Lobster [br]Lancer, but I guess Team Cherry didn’t

0:01:51.600,0:01:58.480
want to canonize lobsters. I have no idea why. [br]They’ll canonize jellyfish and goddamn pickles,

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but not these majestic bottom [br]feeders. Honestly, it makes me sick.

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From an early map of Hallownest made during [br]development, we can see that the Colosseum

0:02:07.280,0:02:11.200
of Fools was originally placed in [br]the Fungal Wastes near the Mantis

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Village. Of course in the final game, the [br]Colosseum is located in the Kingdom’s Edge,

0:02:16.240,0:02:21.200
a more late game area. Kingdom’s Edge [br]was thrown into the game as sort of a

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hodgepodge of stuff they couldn’t fit into [br]the map already. For example, the Hive was

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originally going to be in Deepnest but ended up [br]getting moved over to the Kingdom’s Edge as well.

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We also might have a glimpse of some of the [br]earliest sketches for the Colosseum as well.

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In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Ari [br]Gibson shared a small collection of images from

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his sketchbooks that he used to draw concept art [br]for Hollow Knight. In a GameInformer interview,

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the author claims that this place was actually [br]an early concept for the Colosseum. It looks like

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the audience was originally going to be composed [br]of much larger creatures. But keep in mind a lot

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of these sketches contain some really weird shit [br]that doesn’t appear anywhere in the final game.

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The Colosseum of Fools that we see in the game [br]now didn’t seem to take shape until late in the

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game’s development. But that doesn’t mean there [br]isn’t any lore to be found here. In a Reddit AMA,

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Ari mentioned that the Colosseum [br]does hide a secret of some kind.

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And there really is a lot to discuss here [br]so let’s start with the colosseum itself.

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The Colosseum of Fools is situated [br]inside the corpse of some ancient bug.

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Both the interior and exterior of [br]the colosseum are laden with chains.

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This might be a way to keep the husk of the [br]bug from collapsing in on itself, as well as

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to support the structure surrounding it. Also [br]as a way to imprison bugs like the Little Fool.

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So it seems like this was just some random corpse [br]that ended up being turned into a battleground.

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But a battleground for whom exactly? Who exactly [br]are these fools, and why is it that they are

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murdering each other for the entertainment of [br]others? The Hunter asks this very same question.

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“What do they hope for, these warriors [br]fighting in the Colosseum? Are they slaves,

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or prisoners, or do they freely choose to fight?”.

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The game gives us a pretty clear [br]reason why bugs fight in the Colosseum,

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simply just to fight in the colosseum. They want [br]glory and the chance to show off their strength.

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That’s why we see characters like Tiso, [br]who do seem to be solely interested in

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fighting in the colosseum just for the sake of it.

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But this is where things get weird. All of the [br]enemies you fight in the Colosseum are infected.

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But in the Warrior’s Pit below, they [br]are all just kind of chilling there,

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not trying to murder us. One of them is [br]even enjoying a lovely soak in a hot spring,

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while also still wearing all of his [br]armor for some reason. If dreamnailed,

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one bug goes all Shakespearean on [br]us and asks “Are we all Fools?”.

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So what is it about these warriors [br]that gives them autonomy while

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in the Warrior’s Pit? There are the traitor [br]mantises who took the infection in willingly,

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and it would make sense for the Fools [br]to embrace the infection as well,

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as it would give them more strength, but the [br]mantises also went mad from the infection.

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At least that’s what the Hunter’s Journal says. [br]In the Queen’s Garden we can see that they set up

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campsites, which I assume must take at least [br]some kind of self restraint and cognisense.

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Also Traitor Mantises show up at the Colosseum. [br]So did these maddened mantises walk all the way

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from the Queen’s Garden to the far end of the [br]kingdom or were they captured and brought here?

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The exact details of the infection have [br]always been pretty fast and loose. For

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example why exactly do characters like Cornifer [br]and Cloth not fall to the infection? Are their

0:05:29.120,0:05:33.680
wills that strong? Cloth’s will never [br]seemed too impressive to me. Although

0:05:33.680,0:05:38.480
the last time I said this people started [br]bitching at me. Goddamn simps. Yeah it was

0:05:38.480,0:05:42.640
really impressive when she fucking died [br]to the Traitor Lord. The Traitor Lord.

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Why is it that we can literally just talk to [br]Bretta and Sly to snap them out of their trances,

0:05:48.000,0:05:54.960
but Myla is a completely lost cause? As for Zote, [br]well, there actually is a reason he never fell to

0:05:54.960,0:06:01.520
the infection. In Precept 56, he clearly states [br]that to avoid having his dreams influence him,

0:06:01.520,0:06:06.320
he simply doesn’t dream. So at least [br]there is kind of a reason for that.

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I’d like to speculate at least a little bit about [br]how these bugs might be able to withstand the

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infection, but first we’re going to have to talk [br]about the people who gentrified this giant husk

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in the first place. The main culprit behind all [br]this appears to be the Lord Fool. Unfortunately,

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we aren’t going to be getting much out of him, he [br]doesn’t seem like the talkative sort if I’m being

0:06:25.840,0:06:30.560
honest. Despite that, however, the Colosseum [br]is still running as if nothing is wrong.

0:06:31.120,0:06:34.480
Of course there is the Little Fool, [br]who takes payments and explains the

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rules to anyone interested in fighting. And [br]there are still crowds of people watching,

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but obviously there is work happening behind [br]the scenes as well. There are people capturing

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and breeding the Sharp Baulders and Armoured [br]Squit. I can’t imagine that being very fun.

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I don’t even want to think about the [br]implications of bugs forcing other bugs to breed.

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There also had to be people to capture Zote, as [br]well as throw dead bodies out of the colosseum

0:06:58.720,0:07:04.000
and into the wasteland of Kingdom’s Edge. All of [br]this is continuing to happen while the Lord Fool

0:07:04.000,0:07:08.880
sits dead on the throne. It’s not exactly uncommon [br]for communities to continue functioning without

0:07:08.880,0:07:14.080
their leader, so that’s not really surprising. [br]One aspect that is the most interesting to me

0:07:14.080,0:07:16.640
is the helmets most of the [br]bugs in the colosseum wear.

0:07:17.200,0:07:22.640
The Hunter makes a remark about the masks Battle [br]Obbles wear, asking if such an extravagance is

0:07:22.640,0:07:28.240
practical. Now there are a couple points to [br]make here. If making these masks is such an

0:07:28.240,0:07:33.600
extravagance, then why the fuck are they all [br]over the floors, walls and ceilings? That’s

0:07:33.600,0:07:39.120
like making a minecraft house out of diamonds, [br]or a regular house out of copies of Minecraft.

0:07:39.840,0:07:45.200
So are these masks and helmets used for more [br]than just mere combat. I’ve talked about masks

0:07:45.200,0:07:48.960
a lot on this channel. There are a few [br]general points we can make about them.

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Masks seem to somehow have [br]an effect on a bug’s mind.

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A prime example of this is Brumm, a servant of [br]the Grimm Troupe. When you first talk to him,

0:07:59.680,0:08:05.040
Brumm is a brooding musician about 2 months away [br]from joining an alternative celtic punk rock band.

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However, after the Grimm Troupe is banished we can [br]see that Brumm has a complete personality change.

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His name changes to Nymm, his personality [br]becomes much more upbeat, and he loses all

0:08:16.480,0:08:22.400
memories he has about his time in the Troupe. And [br]most importantly, he is no longer sporting a mask.

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This effect is alluded to by the Mask Maker [br]who says that those who conceal their faces

0:08:28.080,0:08:32.800
lose their sense of self. I think it’s [br]possible that the warriors of the Colosseum

0:08:32.800,0:08:38.240
are experiencing this as well. Now obviously [br]these creatures are still infected.

0:08:38.240,0:08:43.360
If you Dream Nail the Battle Obble it will still [br]give the dialogue bugs give that are infected,

0:08:44.240,0:08:48.080
but maybe the masks force these [br]creatures to give fealty to the Colosseum

0:08:48.800,0:08:52.800
sort of like how Brumm and the other Grimm Troupe [br]members are enslaved to the Nightmare Heart.

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Otherwise I don’t know why the Hunter makes this [br]oddly specific observation about this enemy’s

0:08:58.480,0:09:04.480
mask. It’s also entirely possible that Team Cherry [br]just couldn’t think of anything else to put here.

0:09:05.040,0:09:11.680
I mean, if you read some of these journal entries, [br]they are just kind of random. Like when he ponders

0:09:11.680,0:09:17.280
what Elder Baldurs think about when they curl up. [br]Or how he admits to murdering all of his siblings.

0:09:17.840,0:09:22.080
Or the Oblobble entry where he just [br]complains about being an incel.

0:09:22.080,0:09:25.840
So there is maybe an explanation for why [br]the Fools act like they aren’t infected.

0:09:26.400,0:09:32.320
But what about the audience? Who are these people? [br]Well, bugs that look like the audience in the

0:09:32.320,0:09:37.200
Colosseum appear in two separate places. Two [br]of them appear in a hot spring in the Forgotten

0:09:37.200,0:09:42.560
Crossroads. They will just be talking amongst [br]themselves, but if the Knight gets too close

0:09:42.560,0:09:48.320
they shut up and just awkwardly stare at it. If [br]Dream Nailed, they mention the Colosseum directly,

0:09:48.320,0:09:52.240
implying that they are quite aware of [br]it and are probably frequent visitors.

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The other instance is a bit more vague. Corpses [br]of what appear to be these bugs can be found in

0:09:58.720,0:10:05.120
the Howling Cliffs. Their head shape and body [br]type look almost identical to the Colosseum bugs

0:10:05.120,0:10:10.240
so it’s likely that these are the same species. [br]This bug’s dream nail dialogue refers to how

0:10:10.240,0:10:15.680
without the King’s powers, their minds have been [br]vanquished. This ties to the lore tablet found

0:10:15.680,0:10:20.320
in this area, which tells us that if bugs [br]leave Hallownest their minds will be lost.

0:10:20.960,0:10:25.920
So it seems these Colosseum bugs appear to need [br]Hallownest’s power in order to have a mind,

0:10:25.920,0:10:28.560
since these ones on the edge of [br]the kingdom have lost theirs.

0:10:29.440,0:10:35.280
So what does all this mean? Well, I’m not really [br]sure it means much of anything for the Colosseum.

0:10:35.280,0:10:39.520
But it does tell us that these bugs are [br]capable of avoiding the Radiance’s infection,

0:10:39.520,0:10:42.720
but not capable of keeping their [br]minds when they leave Hallownest.

0:10:43.360,0:10:48.720
That seems odd considering how well known the [br]Colosseum is outside of Hallownest. How do bugs

0:10:48.720,0:10:53.760
outside of the kingdom like Tiso even know about [br]it? Who exactly is spreading this info around?

0:10:54.400,0:10:57.200
At this point I want to mention a [br]theory that has been around for a while.

0:10:58.000,0:11:01.520
Basically the argument goes that [br]this creature is actually a wyrm,

0:11:01.520,0:11:06.640
similar to the Pale King. And the Lord Fool [br]is some kind of reincarnation of the Wyrm

0:11:06.640,0:11:11.120
similar to the Pale King. That would give us [br]an explanation for who the Lord Fool actually

0:11:11.120,0:11:17.040
is as well as explain how there might be some sort [br]of magic mumbo jumbo causing the bugs here to act

0:11:17.040,0:11:22.720
like they aren’t infected. I briefly mentioned the [br]Wyrm corpse idea in the Wanderer’s Journal video:

0:11:23.360,0:11:27.280
Some people have been saying this corpse [br]is the corpse of a Wyrm. But we don’t know

0:11:27.280,0:11:34.354
exactly what kind of creature this was. Maybe [br]it was just a worm with an “O” instead of a “Y”.

0:11:35.760,0:11:41.200
Well that was insightful.This thing probably [br]isn’t any kind of wyrm. You can see what appear

0:11:41.200,0:11:45.840
to be little claws that this bug might have [br]used to move around with. As far as we know,

0:11:45.840,0:11:50.960
wyrms like the Pale King’s original form didn’t [br]have limbs to speak of. Honestly, I’m not even

0:11:50.960,0:11:57.200
sure if they had eyes either. Or buttholes. Also, [br]where is the egg the Lord Fool hatched out of?

0:11:57.840,0:12:01.520
Why didn’t he try and build his own [br]kingdom or at least take over Hallownest?

0:12:02.240,0:12:07.520
So I’d say the chance of this thing being a [br]wyrm is extremely low. Then again, the sample

0:12:07.520,0:12:12.880
size of Wyrms we have to compare this creature [br]to is only one, so maybe there are different

0:12:12.880,0:12:18.320
variations of Wyrms out there in the world. [br]However, Grimm refers to the Pale King as a worm

0:12:18.320,0:12:23.840
in the normal sense, so I really doubt wyrms [br]would ever deviate this much from that formula.

0:12:25.040,0:12:30.560
So to recap, we’ve got a Colosseum that is [br]operating entirely on its own despite both the

0:12:30.560,0:12:36.160
death of their apparent leader and the onset of [br]an infection. The crowd is completely impervious

0:12:36.160,0:12:42.080
to the infection, both inside and outside the [br]Colosseum. The bugs fighting inside the Colosseum

0:12:42.080,0:12:47.600
are infected, but do not show signs of aggression [br]when outside the arena. At least some of these

0:12:47.600,0:12:53.120
bugs are wearing crafted extravagant masks that [br]don’t seem entirely practical on the face of it,

0:12:53.120,0:12:56.720
but maybe have something to do with [br]controlling them. But of course,

0:12:56.720,0:13:01.840
we are missing one important detail. The fact [br]that all of this is happening within Hallownest.

0:13:02.400,0:13:07.840
The Colosseum was probably around during the days [br]of Hallownest’s glory, judging by the language

0:13:07.840,0:13:12.960
used in the game manual. We also know that [br]one of the previous champions of the Colosseum

0:13:12.960,0:13:18.640
was the Pale Lurker. Her dream nail dialogue shows [br]how much she cared about the King, and she even

0:13:18.640,0:13:23.600
kept a King’s Idol in her camp. Of course, [br]it’s possible that she just found the King’s

0:13:23.600,0:13:29.600
Idol and became obsessed with the King, without [br]actually being part of his military force. But

0:13:29.600,0:13:35.120
all in all it seems like the Colosseum of Fools [br]existed without any protest from the Pale King.

0:13:35.120,0:13:40.400
But there is one more aspect of the Colosseum we [br]need to discuss, and that is this room right here.

0:13:41.520,0:13:45.520
This is the room where the Knight’s shade appears [br]after the player is killed in the Colosseum.

0:13:46.160,0:13:51.600
The room itself is actually called the shade [br]trap room in the game files. This raises a

0:13:51.600,0:13:56.720
pretty big question. Why did the bugs of the [br]Colosseum find it necessary to create this room?

0:13:57.360,0:14:02.240
Did other void beings fight in this Colosseum? [br]Pretty much all we can do at this point is

0:14:02.240,0:14:07.760
speculate. So let’s start with a pretty fun [br]one. What if the Hollow Knight was trained here?

0:14:08.640,0:14:13.840
We know the Hollow Knight was trained to prime [br]form. Maybe this happened in the Colosseum,

0:14:13.840,0:14:17.040
and a shade trap was built in case [br]the Hollow Knight was defeated.

0:14:17.680,0:14:22.240
This might also be evidence that the Colosseum [br]has been around way longer than even Hallownest.

0:14:23.120,0:14:27.760
It seems as though the Ancient Civilization was [br]far more acquainted with void than the anyone

0:14:27.760,0:14:32.640
from Hallownest, considering they literally [br]worshipped the void. And it seems possible

0:14:32.640,0:14:38.160
that this civilization was capable of giving [br]void form. So this room might be a remnant clue

0:14:38.160,0:14:43.120
of just how old this place actually is, when [br]maybe void creatures were more commonplace.

0:14:43.840,0:14:48.320
Another more interesting idea is that void beings [br]are actually more common than we might think.

0:14:49.200,0:14:54.160
I’m about to jump into some Silksong spoilers [br]here, so if you are worried about a few bosses

0:14:54.160,0:14:59.040
of the game getting spoiled, you should skip [br]ahead in the video now. As far as we know,

0:14:59.040,0:15:02.560
void can only be found in [br]the Abyss. But in Silksong,

0:15:02.560,0:15:07.440
we know of at least one character who might [br]be a void entity, Steel Assassin Sharpe.

0:15:08.240,0:15:11.600
This character has an attack [br]where his nose turns into a whip,

0:15:11.600,0:15:16.000
and it looks suspiciously like the void [br]tendrils we see in the Abyss. We don’t know

0:15:16.000,0:15:21.440
where this void could have come from, but maybe [br]it exists somewhere else in the world, and void

0:15:21.440,0:15:26.240
creatures would actually come to the Colosseum to [br]fight. That’s a pretty out there idea, for sure,

0:15:26.240,0:15:31.760
but the inclusion of this shade trap might [br]indicate void being more ubiquitous than it seems.

0:15:32.640,0:15:37.520
And that’s about all there is to talk about with [br]the Colosseum. In terms of what mystery is still

0:15:37.520,0:15:42.320
hidden there, the only two theories I have are [br]either how the bugs there used masks to control

0:15:42.320,0:15:46.800
the fighters, or that the Pale King might have [br]used the Colosseum to train the Hollow Knight.

0:15:47.520,0:15:52.433
So thanks for watching and before you go, be [br]sure to sign this petition to

0:15:52.433,0:15:53.533
canonize lobster.