#idk man its in their microactions

[ruthlesslistener]

Curious to hear why you see Ghost, in-game, as acting like a child. (/gen, neutral tone)

It's mostly the fact that they're a very curious entity who, much like a child explores everything with their mouth, explores the world around them with their nail. Obviously how a player controls them affects their behavior, but that doesn't account for stuff outside the player's control, such as the fact that Ghost can break stalagtites/mites, fossilized bugs, and sculptures, as well as break signposts or damage architecture. They know how to control it well enough to not hit friendly npcs (or their mom, for some reason), but they'll still hit the grubs or kill Menderbug, and those moments give a very heavy sense of mistake, like they weren't sure of the connotations of their actions until they happened. They also flail about in a panic when they fall into acid, they get mad at Millibelle and the Pale King and beat them up in a fit of spite, and their fighting style compared to Hornet and the Hollow Knight is an unpracticed mess of swings and blobby spells, basically like what you'd expect from a child with a sword. They are easily fooled by things that lure their curiosity, like Nosk, and are also very, very attatched to their siblings. They didn't come back to Hallownest because they wanted to save it- they did so because Hollow called to them, and Hollow is their sibling. Coming across the Broken Vessel also seems to be very impactful to them (especially since the game encourages you to try to kill the lightseeds before they can control their corpse), and the whole sequence with Hornet in Greenpath is meant to emulate them going '!!!' and making a mad dash for her, which is very juvinile in nature. And we know that they come to care deeply for Hornet, too, because the winged nosk in Godhome takes her form, and they only do that to a bug's loved ones. They have that very linearly-focused, not-so-big-picture sort of drive that feels like how a kid might act even though we can't really see their thoughts. Which, sure, you can argue that an adult character might act like that as well, but the way that Ghost deals with things just gives off a major vibe of naiive, childlike clumsieness, especially when compared with their siblings.

(Also select npcs like Mato, Ogrim, and hell, even WL after her perception on them is challenged speaks to them in what I'd consider to be appropriate to a child. It's not like toddler talk or anything, but it's similar to how I'd speak to a very solemn 8-year-old with a sword and a mission, which helped contribute to that vibe. Not all npcs do this, but I'd def. blame the diversity of insect sizes and their eerie vessel nature for that.)

I think they're supposed to give off a mix of 'eldritch being who knows more than they should' as well as 'child with a sword', tbh. They're not in toddler territory, and they're obviously not analagous to a human child- more a kitten, really, or one half of a set of haunted twins- but they're still very much a child. I kinda think they give off that specific vibe from that one child jesus comic floating around tumblr (where he's spouting off full bible verses despite being like, six), in that they know far more than they should and have a soul older than you'd expect, but they're also like, 8. A very serious 8-year-old, but still 8.