Spoiler: Another addition to the Hegemol Nutcase-Theory

This is major spoilers for anyone who just started playing. This is for hardcore lore nerds to debate and read, so please be advised. I warned you!

So I've found the theory about Hegemol actually being Sly very entertaining to read, and I'd thought I'd pitch in something I haven't seen anyone talk about.

I'll talk about how I think Sly lost his Hegemol armor later, but for now I'll talk semantics; the name "Hegemol", after initial examination, is a made up name for a character in a Metroidvania about adorable bugs. But when I had examined a bit closer, I realized what I was reading. Note, this is mainly for my own amusement, but looking through I think I really believe this theory.

^HEGEMOL

HE-GEMOL

HE-GEMOL

HE-G E M O L

If you rearrange the second and third letters with the fourth and fifth, it reads.

HE-G O L E M

A He-Golem, presumably a golem that identifies as male, but it's not the sexual identity thats the tasty part here. A lot of arguments against the Sly=Hegemol theory is that Sly would never be able to use Hegemol's armor, and to that I now say bollocks.

From the Crystal Heart ability description:

The energy core of an old mining golem, fashioned around a potent crystal.

An interesting choice of words. So not only is it canon that in the peak of Hallownest's heyday, they had completely functional robotics powered by SOUL-filled energy crystals, but it confirms that they were a rather prevalent technology, at least in the construction industry of Hallownest. Now I will give the peanut-gallery this, Golems are a standard, grab-bag fantasy archetype for large robotic constructions in a medieval-ish setting, of course they'd have them in a game like this.

But it just fits for me. How could such a tiny creature like Sly effectively teach three Nailmasters, who dwarf him by several feet, who all wield enormous Nails. I think the only comparable enemies in the game are the enormous guards in the City of Tears, who are also ridiculously enormous.

Combining this with the other things, such as:

1: White Defender's dream nail dialogue:

Hegemol... I miss your humour...

^{Sly is extremely funny in a Pawn Stars, Rick Harrison sort of way. A very dry, Capitalistic sense of humor.}

2: Nailmaster Sheo's dialogue on the Five Great Knights:

Mighty Hegemol was always my favorite. What a towering figure he was, though surprisingly soft spoken for one so large.

^{Sly has one of the quietest voices in the game.}

3: Nailsmith's dialogue while painting models of the Great Knight with Nailmaster Sheo:

We're building a full suite of the Kingdom's Knights. In their time, I barely ever paid them attention, but Sheo keenly remembers each.

^{This not only indicates that Nailmaster Sheo remembers each Great Knight aside from Dung Defender lol}, ^{but shows that Sheo, and perhaps the other Nailmasters, had known, perhaps met, or even trained or fought alongside them. It would also make sense if Sly/Hegemol trained the other Great Knights in the Nail arts. This could perhaps be indicated by how the Grey Mourner used an extremely large Nail, similar to the one in Sly's basement.}

4: Sly's initial dialogue, after being corrupted with the infection.

...Esmy... how much deeper do we have to go...

^{This has been theorized to be a conversation between Sly/Hegemol and Isma, another of the Five Great Knights. This would make sense considering Isma's grove is very hard to find/navigate ingame. This would mean that at least some of the Great Knights, including Sly/Hegemol and Dung Defender escorted Isma to her eponymous grove.}

Another thing I found very interesting is how Sly is initially found at the bottom of the Forgotten Crossroads. While Elderbug states that he went down the well, like the other residents of Dirtmouth, I think there's more to his motivations. It's interesting that the False Knight, the maggot wearing the armor/mech suit of Hegemol, is found in the Forgotten Crossroads; In fact he's the first boss of the game. But why would Hegemol be in such a lowly forgotten place as the Crossroads? Why not somewhere more important, like the City of Tears, the Ancient Basin, or even the Queen's Gardens?

Because I think the Pale King sent him there with specific orders. Those orders were to protect the Temple of the Black Egg.

Imagine that you're one of the bodyguards to the king of a collapsing society. You previously ran a small business in the middle of a small trading town that's connected to a crossroads, and that's slowly becoming overrun with an angry moth's zombifying SunnyD after your boss trapped that angry deity of light inside his own Abyss mail-order son.

This is obviously a situation where some safeguards are warranted. The Pale King is no stranger to safeguards, as most people who've traveled the Path of Pain can attest to, but this is different in a way. The Wyrm had already secured the Hollow Knight with multiple chains, seals of binding, and through the Dreamers prevented the Radiance from fully gaining control of Hallownest at least initially. I think the Pale King wanted some good ol' fashioned physical protection for the Temple, in addition to the Dreamers and Seals of Binding.

But from what?

This'll tie into a couple of other theories I've thought about, and I'll make those maybe a couple of days from now, but here's an abridged version:

I think that the Pale King, in the final days of Hallownest, ordered Sly/Hegemol back to the Forgotten Crossroads to protect the Temple of the Black Egg, not only from the Infectious Husks, but perhaps from the Seer in the Resting Grounds, or maybe from even the Grubfather.

This point seems extremely baseless now, but since I'm tired of writing this, I'll go in depth on that in a different post. So tell me your thoughts guys, did I make sense or was I rambling about a probably non-canon fan theory?

EDIT: Holy shit I just remembered something. You have to go and find the Shopkeeper's key to unlock the rest of Sly's inventory. It's located in Crystal Peak. A lot of people have speculated as to why it's there of all fucking places.

It's because it's where Sly lost the key, while he was searching for a Crystal Heart to power his Hegemol mech suit. Why else would it be in the Crystal Mines?

Maybe he didn't even lose it. Perhaps when he took on the persona of Hegemol, the Pale King made him close up his shop in Dirtmouth, thus rendering the point of a key to his inventory pointless. Maybe it's how certain political officials in the real world. have to disassociate themselves with their businesses, as to remove self-interest from duty.

Submitted July 27, 2018 at 11:09AM by zackgardner https://ift.tt/2mLMe63