History Characters / HollowKnightNPCs

* {{Hypocrite}}: One of his 57 rules is to show respect to those who are superior to you in strength. Considering that he treats the Knight like crap despite it being much, ''much'' stronger than him, even once it [[spoilers:defeats him personally in the Colosseum of Fools]], he's blatantly breaking his own rules.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Any charms that summon allies or objects for you, such as [[EvilDetectingDog Grimmchild]] or [[EvilDetectingDog Dreamshield]], will attempt to attack Millibelle if you approach her, scaring her and locking the "bank" until you change charms.]]

* WillNotTellALie: Precept 20 advises speaking only the truth.

* AmbiguouslyRelated: To the Knight [[spoiler:and the vessels as a whole.]] While nothing is given by the [[HeroicMime former]] to connect them, Zote resembles them [[spoiler:and their siblings]] more than any other character in the game [[spoiler:barring the vessels themselves, their father the Pale King and Hornet, their half sister.]] He also mentions a need to prove himself to his father in the Colosseum of Fools, as well as a general hatred of both his parents, and [[spoiler:the Pale King]] had set a rather selective standard for their children, [[OffingTheOffspring punishing]] the rest for not reaching it, and [[spoiler:the White Lady]] was in on it as well. He also disproves of dreams in precept 56, calling them dangerous things, while also mentioning that ideas not of your own creation can worm their way into your head through dreams, which is [[spoiler:exactly the main modus operandi of [[BigBad the Radiance]], a character not of public enough knowledge for most to know.]] Of course, given the fact that he's an UnreliableNarrator, this should all be taken with a grain of salt, alongside facts such as his ability to speak. Had he gotten his own story as a playable character, this could have been elaborated on more.

* {{Jerkass}}: Zote is an arrogant bumbler who gets in mortal danger and insults the Knight when they help him. Several of the precepts indicate he lives his life by involve being a jerk and taking advantage of others.

* JerkassHasAPoint: A few of his precepts, such as precept 9 (Keep your home tidy) are simply good advice.

* AmbiguouslyRelated: To the Knight [[spoiler:and the vessels as a whole.]] While nothing is given by the [[HeroicMime former]] to connect them, Zote resembles them [[spoiler:and their siblings]] more than any other character in the game [[spoiler:barring the vessels themselves, their father the Pale King and Hornet, their half sister.]] He also mentions a need to prove himself to his father, both in his 57 precepts and in the Coliseum of Fools, and [[spoiler:the Pale King]] had set a rather selective standard for their children, [[OffingTheOffspring punishing]] the rest for not reaching it. Of course, there's evidence against it, such as his ability to speak. He also disproves of dreams in precept 56, calling them dangerous things, while also mentioning that ideas not of your own creation can worm their way into your head through dreams, which is [[spoiler:exactly the main modus operandi of [[BigBad the Radiance]], a character not of public enough knowledge for most to know.]] Of course, given the fact that he's an UnreliableNarrator, this should all be taken with a grain of salt.

* {{Hypocrite}}: One of his 57 rules is to show respect to those who are superior to you in strength. Considering that he treats the Knight like crap despite it being much, ''much'' stronger than him, he's blatantly breaking his own rules.
* IKnowYourTrueName: Lampshaded in his Precept Thirty-Two: 'Names Have Power', where he believes that giving a name to something grants it powers, hence why he calls his weapon the "[[ICallItVera Life Ender]]".

* JokeCharacter: When you face Zote, you find all he does is [[spoiler:swing his sword around like a kid and fall flat on his face while doing rolling jumps]]. Even more amusingly, if you take pity on him and take a hit, [[spoiler:you discover that the so-called Life Ender ''cannot harm you'']]! Just how did this guy survive ''any'' area of the game? [[spoiler:His Grey Prince dream form is still very much a FightingClown, but he actually poses a significant threat with his shockwaves, stomps, and minions.]]

* ArcNumber: 57. The amount of his self-written precepts, and the threshold for the enemies you need to kill in the Eternal Ordeal MiniGame to unlock a new Zote-themed title screen.

* {{Jerkass}}: Zote is an arrogant bumbler who gets in mortal danger and insults the Knight when they help him. Several of the precepts he lives his life by involve being a jerk and taking advantage of others.

* StaticCharacter: Throughout his journey, Zote repeatedly manages to get into dangerous situations and never shows gratitude towards the Knight for helping him or ever learns from his blunders. While he does have [[DarkAndTroubledPast character depth]], he never grows as a character, remaining ever-foolish from start to finish.

* {{Meganekko}}: She wears glasses.

* WhatTheFuAreYouDoing: Even if he wields a wooden nail, he doesn't have a refined fightning style, as in Zote's "fighting style" is simply flailing the weapon up and down while moving forward. And he can trip while moving, falling flat on the ground. [[spoiler:This pathetic swordplay carries over to his Grey Prince Zote version, but his weapon can now damage you and his belly flops can now produce shockwaves.]]

* WoodenKatanasAreEvenBetter: His Life Ender is a hand-made wooden nail. [[spoiler:{{Averted}}, as it can't actually hurt you. DoubleSubverted in the "BonusBoss" version of Zote, where it ''can'' hurt you.]]

* BonusBoss: He becomes the [[ZeroEffortBoss "boss"]] of [[spoiler:the first course in the Colosseum of Fools]] if you keep him alive through the game.

* TheBattleDidntCount: Zote is one of the few bosses who survives his "battle" with the Knight.
* TheMagnificent: "The Mighty" (Although, it's only self-proclaimed).
* TheUnfettered: Discussed in his sixteenth precept (Don't Hesitate), wherein by not looking back, you can achieve more once you've made a decision.

* DeathByAdaptation: A unique case because it's in the same game. [[spoiler:Since Rancid Eggs are more akin to trash in Steel Soul Mode, Tuk is sadly dead of the plague when the Knight goes to her location, her final thoughts being a plea to help her find what she was looking for.]]

* VendorTrash: Steel Soul Jinn offers to buy any rancid egg you show her (she doesn't like them either, but she has a friend who does). On the downside, this means Tuk, who normally sells you Rancid Eggs, had to be killed by the infection to balance things out.

* VendorTrash: Justified; while they have no gameplay effect and are thus useless to you, he'll buy them because he's a historian and wants to learn about Hallownest through them (and, unlike you, he can read their writing).
** Wanderer's Journals are semi-common stone messages written by various bugs in Hallownest, typically as they lay dying. They come in various languages that Lemm likes to decipher.
** Hallownest Seals are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and are more prized for rarity alone.
** King's Idols are mysterious figures bugs worshipped the king through, no two are exactly alike, and they may be clues to finding out who he was.
** Arcane Eggs are the rarest of rare finds, coming from before Hallownest's time. They too have some messages etched into them that Lemm is interested in.

* DeathByAdaptation: A unique case because it's in the same game. [[spoiler:Since Rancid Eggs are more akin to VendorTrash in Steel Soul Mode, Tuk is sadly dead of the plague when the Knight goes to her location, her final thoughts being a plea to help her find what she was looking for.]]

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Discussed in his fifty-first precept, where everything in this world will hurt you. Interestingly, his precept's title is "Nothing is Harmless" which is an inverted way to deliver the same message.

-->''"Precept Eleven: 'Mothers Will Always Betray You'. This Precept explains itself.''

* CuteMonsterGirl: In comparison to her mindless violent family members, yes.

* ItCanThink: She is the only Fluke capable of speech and sentience.

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: It's implied he has extreme familial issues and that's why he's grown up to be such a jerk. However, the implications of his parental abuse is implied at best and he never develops as a character throughout his journey because he keeps refusing to learn from his foolishness.

* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Downplayed. Going by what happens to [[spoiler:everything else the Knight faces in the Colosseum, it must be assumed that they consciously chose to spare his life at the conclusion of their "duel"]]; Zote repays [[spoiler:the Knight's mercy by badmouthing them to everybody in Dirtmouth and swaying their fangirl to his side instead]]. However, the Knight doesn't seem to care at all.

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: It's implied he has extreme familial issues and that's why he's grown up to be such a jerk. However, the implications of his parental abuse is just subtextual and he never develops as a character throughout his journey, possibly because he keeps refusing to learn from his foolishness.

* {{Diary}}: She keeps one where she writes her own {{fangirl}} moments and romantic fictions of her with either the Knight [[spoiler:or Zote]].

* {{Diary}}: [[spoiler:If you kill the Menderbug, his house will be opened in the bottom of the Crossroads, and it will contain his diary, detailing how he sees his job.]]

[=NPCs=] that spend most of their time small town of Dirtmouth.

* DeathByAdaptation: A unique case because it's in the same game. [[spoiler:Since Rancid Eggs are more akin to VendorTrash in Steel Soul Mode, Tuk is sadly dead of the plague when the Knight goes to her location, her final thoughts being a plea to help her find what he was looking for.]]

* VerbalTic: Mmmnnnnnnngghhh... Tuk has one.