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Webcomic / Hollowtale

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Warning: Unmarked Undertale and Hollow Knight spoilers below! You have been warned!

Hollowtale is a Crossover Fan Webcomic based on Undertale and Hollow Knight, set after the True Pacifist ending of the former and during the incomplete lategame progress of the latter. The comic is run by its artist, TheJessofMess.

The story revolves around the Knight mysteriously ending up in the world of Undertale. Having no idea how they got there or how they could return into their homeworld, they were found by Sans on the garbage pile on the street. After the slightly heated first meeting, Sans brought the new visitor into his and Papyrus's house, where they decide to take the Knight under their wing to help them adapt to the new world. As the bond between them grows and the skeleton brothers learn more of the Knight's nature, the dark secrets of two worlds are slowly being uncovered, and a malevolent being from the Knight's world is slowly making its presence known in the world of Undertale.

The comic can be read on the creator's DeviantART or on Twitter. Formerly, it was accessible on the creator's Tumblr, but they ceased the publication there due to complications with the platform (though they still publish links to the pages on DA). The series also have officially-approved comic dubs on YouTube, provided by Revtrosity.


The series has examples of:

  • Adaptational Personality Change: The change here is the presence of personality to begin with. In the original Hollow Knight, the Knight possessed no emotions and was an empty being devoid of personality. Here, the Knight is much more emotive and displays more personality traits, as evidenced by them chuckling at Sans's pun, avoiding physical contact when Papyrus tried to take their cloak, being gleeful when Papyrus offers to spar with them, and many other things. Deconstructed, as it turns out that possessing emotions and personality makes them not a suitable vessel to contain the infection, and, as the Wham Shot of the Part 4 shows, they are actually showing the first signs of succumbing to it.
  • Cuteness Proximity: In one side comic, the Knight introduces Papyrus to the Grimmchild. Papyrus is immediately enamored by Grimmchild's adorable appearance...until it starts spewing fireballs everywhere, setting his kitchen on fire.
  • Hand Signals: Because the Knight is The Speechless, Sans teaches them MoSL (Monster Sign Language), allowing them to communicate through hand gestures.
  • Innocent Swearing: Done non-verbally, in both cases;
    • In one side comic, Sans decides to teach the Knight some "advanced signs" that aren't in the MoSL book, and tells them to sign it to Papyrus. Eventually, they come to Papyrus and flip him off. Papyrus is...less than amused.
      Papyrus: OH MY GOD HOW RUDE! WHERE DID YOU EVEN LEARN THAT?!
      (cut to panel of Sans laughing)
      Papyrus (off-panel): SANS!
    • In the later comic, they innocently ask Papyrus about other rude gesture Sans taught them (a MoSL sign for "asshole"), right in the middle of Papyrus calling out Sans on being a terrible incluence on the Knight. Cue Papyrus giving troubled Sans the Death Glare, with the next panel showing Sans being put into the corner, warded off with "do not cross" tapes and wearing the Dunce Cap with "BAD INFLUENCE" scribbled on it.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: Downplayed, as Sans does not really fight back and dodges instead, but the first meeting between him and the Knight ends up being violent, due to the latter initially seeing Sans as a threat. Thankfully, the conflict dies down very quickly as Sans calms them down and offers to peacefully talk things out.
  • Motor Mouth: In the first page of the Part 4, when the Knight reveals to Sans and Papyrus their preferred name, the latter, amazed by learning of the fact that they are the Knight (which, as he guesses, is the equivalent to the Royal Guard of their world), immediately starts rambling non-stop about the Royal Guard of the Knight's homeland, complete with the Wall of Blather, much to the Knight's regret.
  • Neat Freak: Papyrus is really unappreciative of uncleanliness. In Part 2, he refused to let Sans and the Knight into the house simply because they both had a very strong garbage stench, and even sprayed them with water from the waterhose just to wash off their smell (though Sans making garbage puns didn't help matters). Lampshaded by Sans in Part 3, when he apologizes to the Knight for Papyrus spooking them out, explaining that he's just very stubborn when it comes to cleanliness.
  • Nightmare Sequence: Throughout the Part 6, the Knight experiences a nightmare of seeing themself failing to save their sibling, the Hollow Knight, as they are murdered by the Radiance, who gloats about how the Knight cannot stop her and will fail. It is then followed by Hornet accusing them of abandoning Hallownest just like the Pale King did and calling them out on killing so many, including her mother. As soon as the Knight tries to fight back, they are dragged into the void by their own Shade, where Gaster grabs them and with the cryptic threat tears their Shade apart. The nightmare ends with Sans waking the Knight up.
  • No-Sell: When the Knight spars with Papyrus, the latter tries to use his trademark "blue attack" on them, trying to turn their soul blue. However, because the Knight does not have a soul in a traditional sense, they are left completely unaffected by the attack, much to Papyrus's confusion (leaving him to use just a "cool not-turn-you-blue attack").
  • Pungeon Master: As per canon, Sans loves to make awful puns and cracks them constantly over the course of the series, much to Papyrus's chagrin.
    Sans (in response to Papyrus's reaction to his and the Knight's garbage odor): well chute bro, i thought i had a good pun but turns out it was garbage.
    Papyrus: OH WHY YOU-!
  • Trapped in Another World: The Knight gets hurled into Undertale world without any idea how to get back home. Sans and Papyrus try to help them adapt to their new place the best way they can.

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