Small correction on my part: the queens of some hymenoptera species, like ants and wasps, actually tear off their own wings as they settle in to start a colony, resigning themselves to never fly again. It's still true that no insects can fly as an immature/nymph/larva and then cannot upon entering adulthood, but nonetheless it is an interesting case of an insect losing the ability to fly. Overall though, the main point is that insects only get wings once, and it's at the end of their development, after they've already finished growing.
Your plethora of points have not only made me think of insects and the like in a different way, but also imaging flying versions of every enemy in Hollow Knight. And one final thought, why can't the Hive Knight fly?
I've always had the headcanon that Bretta belongs to one of the beetle species who can fly. That would explain why and how you initially find her in a cave you can't climb up to without the Mantis Claw. It's also funny because large beetles are famous for being clumsy fliers that constantly crash into stuff, and that fits Bretta very well.
One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that many of the bugs in Hallownest wear masks - For the denizens of the city of tears especially, wearing masks was a sign that they were "better" than any outsiders, especially the mantises, who don't wear them. The spiders in Deepnest also wear masks, but for them they function more like armor than a sign of social status.
Something about the Pale King, actually. A Wyrm isn't a type of worm, but instead a large, limbless dragon or sea serpent, so the Pale King's Wyrm form could either be a dragon, or a snake, the latter being most likely. (I got the snake part from sea serpent, which a serpent is a kind of large snake, which would perfectly fit the size of the Pale Wyrm compared to the rest of the bugs of Hallownest.)
The hole you enter the cast-off shell through is most likely the Wyrm's mouth, which a giant hole with teeth doesn't really sound like a reptilian skull. Also, wyrms were probably named that by Team Cherry because it sounds like the creature they would be based on (worms) and also to sound cool, not because they wanted their wyrms to be based on traditional reptilian fiction wyrms.
I'm pretty sure entomologists aren't really bugged (lol) by the artistic liberties taken by the team, but rather take issue with being called "bug scientists"
@@emmad4308 actually insect scientist is more accurate, although it did indeed annoy me for about a milisecond before I realized I have virtually nothing to be upset about beside people not calling us by our official name. but anyway, as mossbag mentioned in their cornifer section, bugs is actually a very misused term and only refers to a few insects. specifically insects of the order hemiptera. and while a lot of entomologist is kind of a pretty broad term, as they can study insects along with other arthropods, generally entomology is considered the study of insects while those who specialize in the study of other arthropods are given another name, such as arachnologists. also, on hollow knights portrayal of real life arthropods, I don't really mind it! I think it would lose its appeal to many players, and lose the appeal of its fantastical elements. also, I'm also an artist, I really enjoy the creative liberties taken. sorry this got long, I'm very passionate about these creatures lmao
@@thefluffyaj4119 i appreciate your input as an entomologists but a bug scientist your are. If you want to bargain.. best I can do is bug and beetles scientist.. or maybe creepy-crawlist
I’m studying entomology in college right now, and your video is very well researched! As for the young mantises, they could be based on mantidflies. They’re in the same order as lacewings and antlions, and many also mimic wasps and bees, which could be where the idea for the stinger comes from.
11:13 I swear to god when that happened. I was on 2 hearts from the mantises and if i died I wouldn’t get my shade back and i had about 4000 geo and when i heard cloths clicking sound, I had a heart attack I thought, I dont know the mantis berserker would burst out and start a boss fight and I was so glad when i found the one that came out was friendly. Edit: for anyone who’s here and hasn’t played the mantis village yet, the mantis berserker does not exist, thats just a random boss i made up just now.
I tried to swing at her when she first popped out of the ground because I was so startled, I'm just glad you usually can't damage npcs because I would have been crushed if I hurt her.
Minor correction: Cordyceps don’t actually take over the minds of their hosts. That would be somewhat merciful in comparison to the reality. It actually puppets the muscles of insects directly, leaving the brain largely intact and even cognizant of its current state. Hosts basically become prisoners in bodies they can no longer control.
@@ziwuri The same way YOU know how to move your body by contracting individual muscles: instincts that have been finely tuned over the course of millions of years.
bugs weren't just picked because they're easy to draw, I imagine they were also picked because you can pick a random species of bug and still get a really interesting character design out of it
@@riley_-zm8vr I had an idea for an ocean cliffs area with a dragonfly boss east of crystal peak and a desert area with an antlion boss west of the howling cliffs, but the idea is too complex for me to write here
my headcannon for Dr. Chagax is that the fact that his career as a doctor is unsatisfactory is a nod to real life dr Evandro Chagas, who after discovering the chagas disease went on to make a medical foundation who is widely known nowadays for being very bad at its job
14:52 That fact shocked me because i am thinking all that time that these two black circles are eyes. If it's not eyes than eyes it's that two small white "teeth"?
Nosk as an Ant Mimic Spider makes a lot of sense. Especially since ant mimics are Jumping Spiders that hunt by ambushing their prey from above. They don't use the mimicry to fool prey, though- it's actually to deter predators, since you don't mess with an ant unless you're prepared to mess with the entire anthill.
He even learn Chess from GotahmChess in a video. TierZoo is taking over RU-vid one genre at a time. Wonder what him and his friends are doing with Nebula.
Next bug I want is the creatonotos gangis moth. Just search up "creatonotos gangis moth tentacles," it's the perfect fit of something that crawled straight out of the deepest part of hell.
"Bardoon appears to be a silk worm that eventually turns into the silk moth." Could you imagine a hollow knight game being about exploring a bug world being guided bardoon as he is getting ready to enter his pupa and then fighting him as the radiance reincarnated.
Bardoon could be a wandering demigod, visiting the corpses and domains of other gods (like the Cast-Off Shell and Hallownest itself), while he waits for his pupation into something grander... Though I don't think he'd be a malevolent god like The Radiance. TR only got that way after she stopped being worshipped and was forgotten by her previous followers; Bardoon would be a brand new god without any reason to take revenge.
There are actually a couple pink butterfly species, none that look particularly like the one in hollow knight though. Look up the paradise phantom though, its a cool pink butterfly.
2:46: I think william pellen did a brilliant job with the voice of Salubra. I mean, he did program the game and wrote a lot of the lines, but Salubra’s voice is just perfect and better than all of that. Truly incredible.
Some insect corrections/observations, from a wannabe entomologist. -ALL arthropods shed their exoskeleton as they grow. All of them. Not just a few species. -16:09 those are mealworms, a type pf grub. Not maggots -Damselflies fulfill the same role as dragonflies as predators, but their prey is smaller. -The tiktik is probably more likely based on a scale bug -I don't think blood worms become anything other than blood worms. They are not arthropods. Anyways, FANTASTIC video. Honestly I really enjoyed the amount of love and effort put into this. It brings me joy to see other people taking interest in bugs!!
@@-jaxthelostman-3160 in one of the beta trailers we see a young elderbug, "elder" is a title given to someone who has come of an old age this implies that elderbug's birth name is "Bug"
im pretty sure he never got a name, just called stag, he named himself because of his old age and memory and his belief that he's the last remaining stag, after going into stag nest and exploring the area, we find a broken egg which made the stag believe that he isn't the last stag, thus renaming him the "Old Stag"
Precept Forty-Five: 'One Thing Is Not Another' This one should be obvious, but I've had others try to argue that one thing, which is clearly what it is and not something else, is actually some other thing, which it isn't. Stay on your guard!
"You are a male Mantis with a child and their head still attached, are you a proud father?" Traitor Lord: lol she died anyways this orange jello is amazing
I always thought the watcher knights are probably Atlas Beetles based on their colours and looks, and the fact they're in the watcher tower, and the word Atlas is usually connected to things like that I think?
I believe Nosk is based off of Mimi, a villain in Super Paper Mario character. She changes to a spider in kind of the same way, twisting her head upside down while slowly turning to a spider. She can also shapeshift too. Also, small detail, Mimi climbs onto the ceiling, dropping rubees, just like how Nosk drops infection stuff when he jumps onto the ceiling. Just thought I would share that.
I've now decided that the clearest picture of the insect world created by games is Bug Fables lore with Hollow Knight tone and Dwarf Fortress gameplay.
I like that they’re not restricted to being accurate to real life bugs. They’re unique bug like fantasy creatures and I think bug features provide an awesome design aesthetic for the game
I don't know if I'm right, but one of the enemies in Royal Waterways, the Pilflip, resembles the extinct genus Hallucigenia from the Cambrian period (it's not an insect, though). I thought it was amazing that scientists were actually confused about the animal's back spikes, thinking they were legs. The game illustrated this confusion well, making the Pilflip able to walk on both sides. Ingenious detail only Paleontology enthusiasts noticed =)
I always thought the Pale King's wyrm form was more like a bobbit worm, a type of bristle worm. Barboon talks about how large wyrms are and the largest recorded bobbit worm is nearly 10 ft long, which within a kingdom of normal-sized bugs, would be MASSIVE.
Yeah but Bobbit worm fangs aren't arranged in nearly the same pattern as the wyrm husk. Cause they have the two large mandibles but I like the idea and the size definitely fits with the game.
13:06 Since the Radiance appears to be a silk moth, I find it interesting because silk moth Caterpillars are killed for their silk and the raidence is y'know, *a God.*
I just assumed before that the Radiance is a bird. Since birds are kind of a direct enemy to bugs and because it's inside a large egg. I have nothing else to back it up with, it was just what my brain assumed when playing.
As funny as this is, he actually thought of this video when he did a rebuttal to MatPats theory. He commented on TierZoos comment about how MatLat should have done an idea like this and they said they should collaborate.
@@christianreinard8285 yeah. I've wanted to do this video for a while. Not sure why people think I'm scrapping the bottom of the barrel for a video like this. I'm honestly surprised no one else had done a big video like this yet.
@@mossbag69 It honestly makes since with how often you jokingly point out what type of bugs (or bats) different characters are. I’ve been waiting for this since your comment. I really enjoyed the video
28:10 I've always thought Ze'mer was some kind of cockroach, the idea of her being a flower is cool but also weird, maybe in silksong we'll learn about Ze'mer's species.
my explanation for why some bugs, like lumaflies, are smaller than others. is because when the Pale King gave sentience to the bugs of the land, it warped there bodies and caused them to grow. so the humanoid bugs are human sized. and those who weren't given minds, or made into I pets or whatever, were just left as normal, tiny, bugs.
I'm actually grateful that they Didn't care all that much about being realistic. I'm not a fan of spiders, I'm pretty much disgusted by all insects except for mantises, and just the mention of a hornet makes my blood run cold. I am terrified of hornets. So I was very pleasant to find out that Hollow Knight's hornets have no disgusting mandibles whatsoever, they don't make that buzz sound that makes me want to run for my life, and they even have a red cute dress! My favorite shade of red too! How sweet! I wanted to add that Hornet doesn't sting but that needle does indeed sting. A lot even.
“Disgusting creatures that haunt my nightmares” wow I’m fucking insulted that you dare call the grubs “disgusting” I would sooner attempt hollow knight’s “Steel Soul” mode without using charms, spells, or upgrades of any kind, than hear those blasphemous words
I love this game so much, feel so happy playing it. I'm 36 and had lost the emotion in videogames, Hollow Knight came and brought that emotion back, 20 out of ten!
13:05 Maybe the Radiance being the silkmoth is a reference to Hollow Knight: Silksong, which it probably have lore connected to both games. There I said it, now come for me.
