
Defeat the Radiance and consume the light...?
King of Shades is a Hollow Knight Fan Webcomic set immediately after a fusion of the game's "Embrace the Void" and "Dream no More" endings. It primarily follows Hornet's quest to stabilize the kingdom in the wake of the infection, while also caring for the newly-freed and heavily-traumatized Hollow Knight.
The comic is hosted on ComicFury and can be read from the beginning here.![]()
King of Shades provides examples of:
- After-Action Healing Drama: Upon encountering a gravely woundednote Hollow after Ghost's battle with the Radiance, Hornet rushes to Dirtmouth to buy a Soulcatcher and, once infusing it with Soul, gives it to Hollow to heal themselves.
- Alt Text: The chapter frontispieces have hover text that refers back to their Roman numeral titles.
- Ambiguous Gender: The Hollow Knight doesn't have a known gender, and in a flashback they're referred to as "Zyr Knight".
- An Arm and a Leg: Even after a visit to the hot springs, the Hollow Knight doesn't get their right arm back.
- Back-to-Back Poster: The comic's cover features Hollow, with a similar figure (most likely Ghost) behind them, with its back to them, shrouded in darkness.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Ghost uses the Godtuner to enter the Hollow Knight's mind and face down their dream of the Absolute Radiance.
- Broken Faceplate: The Hollow Knight has a deep crack down the center of their mask. It is healed after a visit to the hot springs.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Ghost's new form is based on the Demon Emperor butterfly, a species of dark-winged butterflies from South Africa. It fits well with them casting away their old shell to be reborn as the Lord of Shades.
- The Cameo: The Broken Vessel appears as one of the Shades when the Absolute Radiance is being consumed.
- CAPS LOCK: Ghost talks exclusively in all caps, with their speech taking up entire panels.
- Circling Birdies: After going unconscious in the Abyss, as Hornet wakes back up her daze is represented with tiny vengeflies and lumaflies flying circles around her head.
- Continuation: The first chapter is a condensed rehash of two of the game's endings, and the story moves on to the aftermath from there.
- Continuity Nod: When encountering Hornet in Dirtmouth, Quirrel briefly flashes back to their duel in his prequel comic.
- Duality Motif: Ghost's new form is half-male half-female (displayed by the wings) and at the colar of their cloak they have a charm that's half Voidheart and half Kingsoul.
- Exorcist Head: Upon hearing Hornet speak to him from behind, Quirrel grabs his mask and turns it 180 degrees like it's nothing.
- Hermaphrodite: According to
Word of God, Ghost's new form is a bilateral gynandromorph of a Demon Emperor butterfly, which means that one side of their body is male and the other is female, signaled by the patterns on their wings. To quote the author, their gender is "yeah lol". - Flashback Nightmare: It's heavily implied the Radiance subjected the Hollow Knight to many such dreams, as there are several pages where the Hollow Knight recalls their combat training while the Radiance mocks them over their failure.
- God in Human Form: When agreeing to help the Hollow Knight, Ghost creates a new physical body for themselves.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Unclear how much of this is caused by the Radiance's influence, but the Hollow Knight has a flashback in which the Radiance calls him a failure and a liar who doomed the Kingdom. Since she's dead, there's a good chance the whole thing is the Hollow Knight blaming themself for failing to contain her.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Hornet indignantly protests the White Lady referring to the Knight as 'it'.
- Living on Borrowed Time: Quirrel muses that his borrowed time from Lady Monomon must be running out.
- Load-Bearing Boss: It's mentioned that after the Radiance dies, the areas in which the Dreamers were sleeping suddenly collapsed, including the entirety of Fog Canyon. An unknown narrator describes it as if something took a bite out of those areas.
- Macabre Moth Motif: The Radiance is much more explicitly a mothnote in design.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Ghost in their new form has at least three arms.
- Oh, My Gods!: When finally meeting Ghost (now the Lord of Shades) in the Abyss, Hornet's reaction is to quietly blurt out "...Furious gods..."
- Pose of Supplication: After some brief arguing with Ghost, Hornet admits that she and the Hollow Knight need their help, and kneels.
- Spider Limbs: Hornet's four legs and two weaver arms are the traditional pointy-tipped kind, but her main arms end in fuzzy paws à la real life
◊. - Sticks to the Back: As in the game, Hornet's needle adheres to her back without any visible means of attachment.
- Tarot Motifs: Each chapter is named after a number corresponding to a Tarot card.
- Chapter 1: XVIII.note
- Chapter 2: VIII.note
- Chapter 3: ˙ΛΧnote
- Title by Number: As mentioned above, the chapter titles are simply Roman numerals corresponding to certain Tarot cards.
- Troll: Ghost just sits there listening to Hornet demanding the Void to give them back until she pleads for help, and then they reveal they're still alive and just head to leave with a "well?" Hornet is quite miffed when it hits her.Hornet: ...I see devouring a god has done nothing to improve your manner.
- Visible Silence: The Vessel siblings, particularly the Hollow Knight, on account of being The Speechless.
