#skjdhfg sorry if this is incoherent but!! i have thoughts about how significant the change to the voidheart is okay!!!

[ruthlesslistener]

*grabby hands* Give me your Thoughts(TM) on Ghost's ascension to godhood as the Lord of Shades

[cracks knuckles] alright so you know how the Kingsoul only becomes the Voidheart after Ghost recovers their memories of their birth, and witnesses their sibling betraying them to become the Hollow Knight, a position of utmost sacrifice? I believe that represents the start of their ascension to true godhood because it is the moment where they reject the cause of their birth (PK's vessel plan), and choose to take their own path, where they accept their nature and embrace the void instead of pushing it away to chase the dreams of the God of Soul. It's significant, because they choose how they want to live instead of following in the path that a tyrant set for them, and so inherit what was denied to them- autonomy. They become their own person, they accept what they are, and, in doing so, step out from the shadow of the Pale King to become a Higher Being of their own right.

Because think about it- a charm is canonically formed from an extremely strong desire made manifest, notably often death wishes or dreams that present themselves so intensely that they manifest into a physical form. The Kingsoul represents the union of two Higher Beings, so it's a charm that was likely formed at the conception of Hallownest, and thus represents the Pale King's heart- his will. When Ghost changes that into the Voidheart, that essentially represents them wiping away the desires of the old king in order to replace it with their own. They LITERALLY take the reason they were born- the reason for their suffering, and the death of all their siblings, the reason that demands them to be mindless and inert- and they overwrite it to make it their own. They forge their own path. They cast a big ol' fucka you in the direction of the Pale King, drown his rule in void, and then make it a part of themselves so that they can call their siblings forth from the shadows to wreak vengeance on the goddess who tortured their kin. It's a similar moment of power to when they first seize the charm's other half (by beating PK's corpse off of the throne, taking it from him, and then sitting on his throne above his inert body), but its even more significant because that is the point where Ghost chooses to become their own person, and to cast off the shackles that their parents put on them once and for all

(PV choosing to follow in the path that the Pale King set for them could also be why they inherited the title as the God of Nothing, rather than purely the Void itself. Nothingness is still a powerful realm to be in control over, but they did not take the Abyss that made them and make it their own, which means that they ultimately failed to become the Lord of Shades, while Ghost's independence is what earned them control over that domain)