Boss Design Studio: Mantis Lords

Not pictured: right afterward, them stabbing you

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Boss Design Studio, my roughly fortnightly essay series wherein I overanalyze videogame bosses and tell you what I think about them.

In this post, I'm looking at probably my favorite bossfight in all of Hollow Knight: the Mantis Lords.

If I had to briefly summarize the boss, I'd say "skilled".

The Mantis Lords are one of two bosses in Hollow Knight that you have to actively challenge to battle, the other being |the game's final boss, the Radiance|; unlike most bosses, they don't attack you on sight. What they do do is close the gate leading to the next area, which they refuse to open unless you fight them.

At the beginning of the bossfight, the first Mantis Lord leaps off her throne in the center, moving so fast she may as well be teleporting (and, indeed, mechanically is). Then she arrives on the battlefield and tries to stab you with her spear (or "nail-lance") before abruptly yeeting herself offscreen again. And that sets the tone for the entire bossfight: a Mantis Lord will flash-step onto the battlefield, try to stab you, and flash-step out again. This repeats.

The Mantis Lord you're fighting has three attacks. Two of them involve teleporting in and trying to stab you: either she'll appear on one side of the arena platform, dash across it, and pause for a moment before jumping offscreen again, or she'll appear directly above you and dash to the ground. Her third attack is grabbing onto one of the walls, then throwing a boomerang at you, necessitating jumping over it.

Actually, some normal enemies encountered later in the game (Mantis Petras) suggest that the projectiles she throws aren't boomerangs at all. Mantis Petras have an attack that creates the same projectiles, but in its description, they're described as "wind-scythes". Which implies that rather than throwing physical projectiles, the Mantis Lords somehow creating them out of literal thin air. This is supported by the animation for this attack; their spears get a sort of motion blur to them, and the Mantis Lords don't appear to be actually retrieving and throwing a projectile.

(Granted, I have never really paid very close attention to the animation they do when throwing the projectiles, because I'm more focused on, y'know, dodging said projectiles.)

Now you may have been wondering, what have the other two Mantis Lords been doing while you fight the first one? And the answer is: standing there. But when you defeat the first Mantis Lord, she flash-steps back to her throne and slumps over. You get a brief moment of respite before the second phase starts, as the other two leap off their thrones and start both attacking you at once.

Mercifully, their attacks aren't all at once. You don't have to deal with one of them throwing wind-scythes while the other one drops on you from above. Most of the time they alternate attacks, so you have just enough time to dodge one diving at you before you now have to dodge one dashing across the arena. The only attacks they do in sync are the projectile throwing (which they do in perfect unison) and the occasional instance where they decide to both dash across the arena from opposite ends at the same time.

There's a common thread through all of the Mantis Lords' attacks, and it's something I mentioned earlier: skill. The teleport-in-and-dash-at-you attacks go in straight lines, either "straight down onto where you would be unless you dodge" or "straight across the arena". Notably, the horizontal one stops right at the edge of where the platform ends and the spikes begin.

(Did I mention the spikes? I didn't. You'll see what I mean when I get around to talking about the arena.)

And, of course, the wind-scythe projectiles are also a testament to their skill; I don't know about you, but I can't create blades out of nothing but air. The fact that the two in the second phase can throw theirs in sync with each other, sending them in exactly the same pattern at exactly the same time, only heightens this.

The Mantis Lords are not the only Hollow Knight boss to disappear from one part of the arena and reappear in another part. Colloquially, we call that "teleporting," and I count at least 11 other bosses that can do it. However, the Mantis Lords are unique in that their teleporting doesn't use magic; they're simply going too fast to see. Every other boss teleports by magic (well, unless you count "jumping into the ceiling and rummaging around for a while" and "diving into the floor" as teleporting, which I don't), but not the Mantis Lords: they've managed to do it through sheer skill.

(Mechanically, of course, they are just teleporting. But the animations and the flavor are different, and that's like two-thirds of what makes a bossfight good.)

Interestingly, there's one NPC that can also do their teleporting-by-going-really-fast thing: |Quirrel|, when he helps you during the battle against |Uumuu|. So it's not a uniquely mantis ability, it's just something they -- and he -- can do because they're fast enough.

[EDIT: Actually, there's also one other boss that can teleport-by-going-really-fast: Hive Knight. I've only ever fought him once, so forgive me if I didn't remember him.]

The arena for this bossfight is unique among those we've discussed so far, because it's actually meant to be a battle arena. When you challenge them, the arena walls drop down from the ceiling, and two pits full of spikes open up on either side of the arena. (Those are the spikes I mentioned earlier.) The arena is made of wood, metal, and... uh... whatever the mantises make their floors out of. The spikes provide an extra layer of challenge, as you have to avoid falling into them.

They don't really sit on their thrones.

The Mantis Lords' boss theme is "Mantis Lords," which is played on the harpsichord and some other unidentified string instruments. I think possibly cellos, but I'm not sure. It's really quite highbrow for a bunch of people who are trying to stab you, which makes sense given that these are skilled warriors who are also nobility.

There's something I didn't mention earlier, that I think fits quite well in the conclusion. This bossfight has a very strong rhythm to it: a Mantis Lord attacks you, you dodge, you attack the Mantis Lord, the Mantis Lord teleports offscreen. Then repeat, with brief breaks while the Mantis Lords are throwing wind-scythes at you. The rhythm doesn't really change in the second phase, except that there are now twice as many Mantis Lords so they're attacking you twice as fast. The wind-scythe breaks serve to release the tension that would otherwise build to unbearable levels from the constant pressure of Mantis Lords trying to stab you, and the rhythm means that while fast, the boss is still manageable.

This is probably my favorite bossfight in all of Hollow Knight. It's fast-paced and exciting and fun, and my only complaint is that since it's still an early-game boss (albeit one of the last of them) and you don't have to fight it to progress, it's often over too quickly if you come back with later-game upgrades and gear. Which is why I fought them now, when I was still relatively underpowered.

This has been Boss Design Studio. Tune in next time to hear the Mantis Lords' leitmotif again in an entirely unrelated bossfight.

"How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse" by K. Eason

"Fantasy space opera political intrigue" is not a genre I knew existed. And yet, here we are.

The "fantasy" comes in from the fact that all their advanced technology is actually made of magic (or "arithmancy"). Which means you can hack it with your brain. I don't know why everyone doesn't know arithmancy if it lets you hack into things with your brain; maybe it's harder than it seems. There are also fairies, who the people in-universe didn't think existed until they invited the fairies to Rory's christening and the fairies actually showed up.

Speaking of whom! Rory Thorne, who left the structural integrity of the multiverse entirely unchanged, is a princess (of a space kingdom) who was cursed at birth by a fairy. No, this is not a Sleeping Beauty retelling; she was cursed at birth to... see through politeness. And also lies. This is one of those curses that are also sort of a blessing in disguise.

I think the book started being truly good about a third of the way through, when it decided to drop the snarky feminism and just focus on the fantasy space opera political intrigue. And I have nothing against feminism, but it's like bay leaves: it can make the thing you're making better, but if it insists on being an integral part of the finished product, it's going to mess stuff up.

And once it dropped the snarky feminism (which grated on me, just like a bay leaf), I did enjoy it. Even the fantasy space politics.

This is written in sort of the style of an in-universe history book, which gives it a unique narration voice. The framing also means that it usually just leaves you to figure out the worldbuilding from context, which it mostly does a good job of subtly explaining, aside from a couple of instances of "as you know, Bob" (which, as you know, is not generally a good way to explain lore or backstory).

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: ...a soft T15+ for bad language and some (mostly veiled) sexual references. I had a difficult time deciding whether to give this T or T15+, and eventually decided to err on the side of "there's nothing stopping a 13-year-old from reading this, but I wouldn't give it to them, so I guess T15+." That said, it's a soft T15+.

4 stars.

(Endnote: I have a theory: Rory Thorne is actually a distant descendant of none other than Carswell Thorne, of The Lunar Chronicles fame.)

"The Schwa Was Here" by Neal Shusterman

A schwa is the upside-down "e" symbol. It's used pretty much exclusively in phonetics, and it makes a sort of "uh" sound.

Don't worry, this isn't a book about typography. It's actually about Calvin "the Schwa" Schwa, a teenager who makes you forget about him. Not on purpose, it just sort of happens. Unless he's pointed out to you, or he points himself out to you, it's really hard to remember him. He's just so eminently forgettable, so much so that people will often forget he's there in the middle of talking to him. Or talking about him. Or writing about him.

He's not the main character, though. That honor goes to

The Schwa Was Here isn't actually a book about the Schwa. Well, it is and it isn't; he's definitely prominent, but he's not the protagonist. The protagonist is Anthony "Antsy" Bonano, a normal and non-forgetfulness-inducing teenager. There's also an incredibly curmudgeonly old dude, the old dude's blind granddaughter who accidentally induces a love triangle, and various minor characters.

Speaking of the love triangle. Love triangles just fill me with a certain je ne sais quoi... I think it's called "annoyance"? This one does at least get resolved fairly quickly, unlike some I could mention (coughKeeperoftheLostCitiescough), in that it doesn't take like ten books and counting. But it still annoyed me while I was reading

This book seemed like it was going to end unsatisfactorily, and then it didn't. The ending, originally bittersweet and somewhat hollow, is made abruptly better by the final two pages.

The chapter titles are quite funny. I like them.

Did you notice that |on the cover, the author's last name is spelled with a schwa where the schwa sound is|? I didn't until |I was like a third of the way through the book|, and I think it's a neat detail. Especially how |you miss it at first, but then you notice it and it was there all along|... it just ties in so nicely with the story.

How many times have I started writing this post? Somehow I keep forgetting about

So yeah, the book was good enough and interesting enough that it inspired... *gestures vaguely at the above post* this from me. It's sort of the blogging version of performance art, I guess?

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A stern T for some crude humor and a veiled sexual reference or two.

4 stars.

(Endnote: I think I've cracked the code. The Schwa is actually Kilroy. They were both Here.)

"The Revolutionary Samuel Adams" by Stacy Schiff

This book is less a biography of Samuel Adams and more a history of all the 18th-century politics he was involved in. And there's a reason for that; perhaps because his primary occupation was rabble-rousing, Adams was an incredibly private person. He wrote under dozens of different pseudonyms, we never know quite where he was at any one time (except when he needed an alibi; we know exactly where he was during the Boston Tea Party), and he seldom signed his letters. He's like the Invisible Man: we can't see him directly, but we kind of know where he is and what he's doing by looking at the aftereffects.

As was the fashion at the time, most of Samuel Adams's subversive newspaper articles were written under pseudonyms. My favorite one was "Vindex"; the actual Vindex was a Roman general who rebelled against Nero, but I was heartily amused by how it sounds like you're saying "Windex" with a vampire accent.

The book spends about a chapter on Adams's early life and about a chapter on his later life. They're not the important part. Also his life after the Revolution is kind of sad; he was very good at rabble-rousing, but got kind of lost and fell out of favor when rabble-rousing was now counterproductive in our newly formed nation and everybody had the rights he was yelling about not having.

But the parts in the middle are not sad. They are in fact kind of funny, with how the royal governors despair of their inability to actually do anything about this one guy who they know, but cannot prove, keeps writing subversive essays and turning the town of Boston against them. And then the one time they try taking him out is foiled by Paul Revere.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+, probably, for some violence.

4 stars.

Favorite lines:

    If you read only the essays in the papers you might reasonably conclude that ancient Romans peopled eighteenth-century New England.

    Page 159.

(Endnote: Von, two, three bottles of Vindex. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.)

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl

This book is weird. Fun, but weird.

It's pretty famous, and a lot of people know the basic plot, but I'll recap it here anyway: Willy Wonka, candy maker extraordinaire, has put five Golden Tickets into random chocolate bars somewhere in the world. The recipients will be invited to his mysterious factory, which nobody has been inside for years. Four of the Golden Tickets go to kids who are some flavor of bad, and the fifth goes to none other than our protagonist Charlie Bucket. The bad kids meet with their comeuppances, and Charlie Bucket |inherits the factory|.

Reading it this time, I was struck by how the Oompa-Loompas are basically a Greek chorus. I mean, think about it. They're this group of people, who are in the story but not a big part of it, who follow the main characters around, and who explain the point to the audience by singing about it. Like I said, they're basically a Greek chorus.

(It also helps that their songs are well-written and actually quite funny.)

Really, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a much deeper book than people give it credit for. It's just also very silly, and not a lot of people see through that.

This review is part of my first completed quest. In fact, it's the final part of my first completed quest. I've been on this one since September 21, 2023, and finally completed it today, May 19, 2026. (Well, I wrote this review on April 24, but I published it on May 19, so that's the date I'm counting from.)

...now I have to go back and change everything that said "my ongoing quest" to say "my completed quest" instead. Agh. That's going to be a bit of a chore. I think I'll put that off for a bit.

My mom reviewed this.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E, probably.

4 stars.

Favorite lines:

    They streaked past a black door. STOREROOM NUMBER 71, it said on it. WHIPS--ALL SHAPES AND SIZES.

    "Whips!" cried Veruca Salt. "What on earth do you use whips for?"

    "For whipping cream, of course," said Mr. Wonka. "How can you whip cream without whips? Whipped cream isn't whipped cream at all unless it's been whipped with whips. Just as a poached egg isn't a poached egg unless it's been stolen from the woods in the dead of night!"

    Page 86. This is probably one of my favorite exchanges in all of fiction.

(Endnote: It's a pity the sequel had to jump the shark so hard.)

Boss Design Studio: Hornet

Behold, I'm standing on text!

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Boss Design Studio, my roughly fortnightly essay series wherein I overanalyze videogame bosses and tell you what I think about them.

In this post, I'm looking at Hornet, specifically her first bossfight in Hollow Knight. She has two; I'd do them both in a single post, but they're separated by like two thirds of the game.

If I had to briefly summarize this bossfight, I'd say "test".

Hornet opens her bossfight with a brief bit of dialogue, in which she warns us to back off and turn away from our quest, because it will end tragically. She apparently knows what we're here to do, which is more than we know at this point, and she can sense something terrible awakening in the kingdom. After her speech, she goes into an "en garde" stance for a moment before beginning the bossfight.

Hornet is different from all three of the bosses we've encountered previously. She's very mobile, jumping and dashing around the arena, and she's also much smaller than any of them. You're no longer a small but mobile protagonist fighting a larger and slower boss, you're a small but mobile protagonist fighting a small but mobile boss. And that, combined with the dialogue, makes this feel less like a monster fight and more like one warrior versus another.

Her attacks are also more warrior-like. Unlike the False Knight, she actually knows how to handle her weapon and attack you with it, rather than just waving it clumsily around. She runs and jumps around the arena to reposition, and will occasionally pause in her movement to attack you.

This she does, mostly, by dashing at you (either from the air or from the ground) with her needle (that's the spear thing she's holding). She'll also throw it across the room at you, necessitating jumping over it, before yanking it back with a strand of silk and hitting you with it on the way back. Getting hit on the backswing isn't a universal thing -- with practice, you can learn to dodge it -- but it definitely happens a lot, especially when you're newer at this and aren't expecting to have to dodge the same attack twice.

She also has her "thread storm" attack, which in my experience she uses to make you back off when you're pressing the attack too hard: she hovers in the air, her needle mysteriously disappears, and she whips thread in a circle around herself for a second or so before dropping to the ground. The thread damages you if you're caught in it. The thread storm is honestly one of the hardest attacks to dodge, because its telegraph is rather brief, and it's an area attack so if you're too close when she starts it it can be almost impossible to get out in time.

Hornet is a very vocal boss. She has battle cries, which she yells at the start of her attacks (and which have become memes in the Hollow Knight community, particularly "Shaw!"). I think the battle cries reinforce the "duel between warriors" aspect of the battle; they serve as a constant reminder that the boss you're fighting is a skilled person, not just a large animal or a guy who doesn't know how to use his armor and weapons. They also lend Hornet quite a bit more personality than most of the other bosses.

The stagger mechanic also makes a return with Hornet; she's the first boss to showcase how it properly works. (False Knight, while he does have a stagger, has one based on his remaining health rather than how many times you've hit him; Gruz Mother and Vengefly King don't stagger at all.) After you've hit her... *checks wiki* 11 times, Hornet will pause for a few seconds to catch her breath. That's another thing that I think serves to reinforce the "this is another person you're fighting" aspect.

The boss arena for this fight is in Greenpath, the moss forest area, and it's the first arena that isn't predominantly dark bluish. Instead it's lush and green and honestly quite pretty. It's probably my favorite of the early-game boss arenas. Pay no attention to the corpse in the background.

Hey look, monoliths!

Speaking of whom. When you defeat her, instead of dying, Hornet yeets herself offscreen through the ceiling. Then the background corpse falls over, allowing you to steal its cape, which grants you the dash ability. I actually don't think it was killed by Hornet; she pretty exclusively uses her needle to fight, and the background corpse has a nail sticking out of it.

(I should mention, because it'll make some later things make more sense: The broadsword equivalent of the Hollow Knight universe is the "nail". The more zweihandery ones are "greatnails", and the spears are "nail-lances". Hornet uses a needle, which so far is a weapon unique to her. In the sequel, the equivalent of rapier and dagger -- that's two of his weapons, but well -- is "pins".)

Hornet's boss theme is "Hornet", an energetic and rather upbeat track composed almost entirely of string instruments. It's dramatic, and it's about as punchy as you can get with a palette composed almost entirely of string instruments, but what it isn't is menacing. Nothing about the bossfight is terribly menacing, really; sure it's a battle to the death, but it's not a battle to the death against something evil. As I said in my brief summary, it's more like Hornet is testing you; if you can survive a bossfight against her, you might just have what it takes to survive the rest of the kingdom.

And Team Cherry did a masterful job of conveying that with this entire bossfight. Hornet, though she will stab you to death and in fact is quite good at that, never feels evil. The pretty and honestly kind of tranquil arena, the non-menacing fight music, the little reminders that you're fighting a person and not a monster... Hornet is an antagonist, but she's also one of the good guys; this bossfight is more of a test of mettle than anything else.

(Interestingly, it also serves the same role in a more meta sense: Hornet is the first real difficulty spike of the game, the first boss that uses skill more than brute force and thus requires you to develop an equal amount of skill to defeat her. Just like she's testing the protagonist's skill in-universe, she's also testing the player's skill out-of-universe.)

This has been Boss Design Studio. Tune in next time to hear Christopher Larkin play the harpsichord while the bosses throw things at you.

Mini-Reviews 19: Remaining Quest Objectives

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

I can see why this is such a popular book. I mean, it kept me interested while I was sleep-deprived on an airplane, and that is no mean feat.

Treasure Island doesn't use all the pirate tropes, it started all the pirate tropes.

My mom reviewed this, and this mini-review is part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for reckless violence.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, adventure, classics, pirates, rated E10+

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

I didn't enjoy reading this, and I think the reason for that is twofold: A) I'm too old for it, and B) it was meant to be read aloud.

This mini-review is also part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E. It's meant to be read aloud to children.

2 stars. Star ratings are a subjective measure of how much I liked a book, not a more objective measure of how good a book is, and I didn't enjoy reading this.

Tags for this one: 2-star, classics, rated E, talking animals

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

Honestly, I like this better now that I'm older. When I was younger, I found the book too tense, but I think it's just right for me now. Also it's about a mouse, so that's a definite plus in my opinion (I am, after all, the person who named his blog "Sam the Library Mouse").

I really enjoyed how the toy motorcycle works. You make it go by making motorcycle noises. It's just such a fun explanation. |And it's made even better by the toy ambulance, which shows up later in the book, being powered by making ambulance noises.|

This mini-review, too, is part of my first completed quest. Hence the title of the collection.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E. Nothing objectionable.

4 stars.

Tags for this one: 4-star, rated E, talking animals

(Endnote: Oddly enough, all three of these books have prominently yellow covers.)

"The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin

I have read this book so often I could probably review it from memory.

The first completed quest (of which this review is a part) was a nice excuse to reread it, though. I've read this book so often I feel like I know all the characters, so rereading it feels like hanging out with friends. And I don't even have to |ENDING SPOILERS not get attached to one of these people|, because |none of them is the murderer|.

The Westing Game is described as a "puzzle mystery," meaning that there's a puzzle to figure out. I did not figure it out when I first read the book, and neither did I do so on subsequent read-throughs, because then I already knew the answer. If you did what I didn't (i.e. |put all the clues together in one place and tried to solve them like that|), it does seem to be possible to solve it yourself.

My mom has reviewed this, twice. She likes it as much as I do.

Let the reader beware that exposure to this book may cause one to go around shouting "Boom!" at people for some time afterward.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for being a murder mystery. Other than that there's basically nothing untoward in the entire book; no swearing, no graphic violence, no (even mildly) suggestive themes...

5 stars.

        Today I have gathered together my nearest and dearest, my sixteen nieces and nephews 

    "What!"

        (Sit down, Grace Windsor Wexler!)

    The lawyer stammered an apology to the still-standing woman. "I was only reading; I mean, those are Mr. Westing's words."

    Pages 28-29. It's from the reading of Sam Westing's very strange will, which kicks off the titular Westing Game.

    First murder, now a swear word.

    Page 30. The swear word in question actually isn't one; it's "dastardly". When I first read this I didn't know the swear word that "dastardly" sounds like, so I didn't really get this joke until I was older.

(Endnote: Buy Westing Paper Products!)

"Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell

I first read this book for a literature class. I didn't really like it then; I didn't dislike it, but I also didn't like it.

Happily, I liked it much better this time around, now that it wasn't compulsory. Also I've read and enjoyed a few surviving-alone-in-the-wilderness books since then, which heightened my appreciation of this one. I actually rather like surviving-alone-in-the-wilderness books, for all that I don't read very many of them.

I found it darkly funny how |Karana and her younger brother are initially set up to be trapped on the island together|, only for |her brother to tragically be killed by wild dogs within like a day|. Granted, Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on a true story, and that's one of the things that happened in that true story, so it's not like the author decided to do it for no good reason. But the |abruptness of it| still mildly amuses me in a gallows-humor sort of way.

There's a |missionary| who shows up in this near the end. He's onscreen for roughly a single page, but he's a good |missionary| from what little we see of him. (Spoiler-tagged because that's sort of an ending spoiler.)

This review is part of my first completed quest.

The cover image was scanned by yours truly, because I could not for the life of me find a good image on the Internet of the version we have. Any defects are either my fault or the fault of the fact that our copy is old and slightly worn.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for violence (thanks, wild dogs).

4 stars.

(Endnote: The island of the blue dolphins can never be the same since the day the dolphins mysteriously turned beige.)

"Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi

This book is odd.

I thought, from its reputation, that it was written sometime in the 1700s. It wasn't. It was written, and is set, in the 1880s. But it seems older. It's also shorter than I expected; I thought it was going to be really long and take me forever to read, and I was wrong about that.

Pinocchio (which I always want to spell Pinnochio, with two N's and one C) is one of those morality stories that don't even bother to stop just short of hitting you over the head with their moral lessons. It hammers home its point of "boys should be good and not lazy or disobedient" with what may as well be an actual hammer. And also with some really strange situations -- Pinocchio's entire school class going to the Land of Toys for five months and then spontaneously transforming into donkeys comes to mind. As I said, this book is odd.

Early on in the story, Pinocchio visits the Inn of the Red Lobster. I can only assume that they have good biscuits there.

For all that "Pinocchio's nose gets longer whenever he tells a lie" is what everyone thinks of when they hear "Pinocchio", that's not actually a major part of the book. It's in a grand total of one scene. The getting-eaten-by-a-giant-shark, however, is a more major part of the book.

Pinocchio does get better, eventually, but it takes being put into a situation where getting better is literally his only option. It also takes him almost the entire book before he gets put into that situation, so for most of the book, despite his efforts (of varying sincerity) to get better, he keeps being lured away or presented with an easy way out. Which makes him slightly annoying to read.

This review is part of my first completed quest.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for being weird. There's bits of it that are honestly creepy if you think about them for long enough.

3 stars. 

Favorite lines:

    "I am the ghost of the Talking Cricket."

    Page I-haven't-the-faintest-idea-because-I-read-this-on-Project-Gutenberg-and-it-was-just-one-long-text-file-with-no-page-breaks. It's said by the ghost of the Talking Cricket, and it greatly amused me for some reason. I'm not sure why.

(Endnote: Sadly, my endnote was swallowed by the Terrible Shark.)

Boss Design Studio: Gruz Mother and Vengefly King

Image splicing by yours truly.

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Boss Design Studio, my roughly fortnightly essay series wherein I overanalyze videogame bosses and tell you what I think about them.

We have a double feature for this post, because I want to take a look at both of these bosses but neither of them are really complex or important enough to get their own essays. So without further ado, I present Hollow Knight's Gruz Mother and Vengefly King. Gruz Mother is the one on the right, Vengefly King is the one on the left.

If I had to briefly summarize these bossfights, I'd say "Herbivore" and "Carnivore".

They're actually very similar. You have to start both fights: the Gruz Mother is asleep, and the Vengefly King is hanging out on the ceiling chewing on an NPC. They both have very simple movesets, they're both nonsentient animals, and they both have no lore importance.

Gruz Mother fights like an herbivore. Mostly, she tries to faceplant into you, and/or repeatedly slams into the ceiling and the floor while slowly traversing the boss arena. She's large and not very fast, except when she's faceplanting into you. Her attack patterns are quite simple, and they have a vibe of "I shall now tackle you until you stop trying to eat me."

Meanwhile, Vengefly King fights like a carnivore. He mostly hovers out of reach of your attacks, except when he swoops down and tries to bite you. Also he'll occasionally freeze in place and scream for a moment, which summons normal Vengeflies (they're minor, common enemies that aren't much of a threat) to attack you. His attack pattern is also quite simple, even if it's also annoying to deal with as a newer player; the only real window to attack him is when he's swooping at you, which requires jumping over him and attacking him from above, and that can be difficult to time right. Especially for new players, as I know from experience.

Both Gruz Mother and Vengefly King are boss versions of common, decidedly non-difficult enemies that, by this point in the game, you've seen many of. Normal Gruzzers are small flies that just fly around aimlessly bumping into things, and normal Vengeflies are slightly more threatening in that they do actually chase you (albeit very slowly). 

Neither of them has any lore significance in their bossfights; Gruz Mother is blocking a gate to an abandoned village, and Vengefly King will eventually kill the NPC he's chewing on if you put off fighting him for long enough. But unlike almost every other boss in the game, there's not really any backstory as to why they're doing those things. They're just kind of there to provide a challenge to the player. And while that's entirely fine, it also does leave both of them feeling kind of lacking compared to the other bossfights in the game.

Their arenas, similar to False Knight's, are kind of drab. Gruz Mother's arena is... some sort of abandoned building she's taken up residence in; it has chairs, windows, wallpaper, and a sort of fountain thing. Vengefly King's arena is just a cave.

Oddly pointy fountain thing, I choose you!

Behold, stalactites. This one's the Vengefly King arena.

(Actually, that four-points motif on the fountain in Gruz Mother's arena is the symbol of Hallownest's |dead monarch|, the Pale King. But you don't learn about him until much later in the game, so it's not something you'd notice on your first run. Or necessarily the second, third, etc; I only noticed it now when I was writing this essay.)

And now the boss music. Gruz Mother uses "Decisive Battle," the generic bossfight theme also used by a few other minor bosses. It's nice action-y music, and it does give off the feeling of fighting a difficult battle, though its status as a generic fight theme means it can't really be personalized to any of the bosses that use it. Vengefly King uses a track the wiki calls "Greenpath (Action)", which is the music that plays any time you're having a fight in Greenpath. (Greenpath is the area in which Vengefly King is located.)

Gruz Mother and Vengefly King are both rather generic bosses. They're similar, but with a few key differences, and their respective "feels" (herbivore and carnivore, respectively) are done well.

This has been Boss Design Studio. Tune in next time to hear Hornet yell "Shaw!" right before stabbing you.