#if we just choose to ignore that one piece of dreamnail dialogue in deepnest that totally implies he's never been there before

[ratcandy]

Honestly the reason I could make the nosk zote theory even plausible was with the argument of how he only looks like a vessel if you look at him from far away

No other vessel has a mouth, or that pinkish color, or even asymmetrical horns that we can see. if u look in the baby pit, none of the vessels seem to have horns that aren’t symmetrical, save for ones with clear cracks/breaks in them from falling

And going off the idea that he’s Cheap Offbrand Vessel, that just led my brain into going “oh, he’s something pretending to be a vessel, and just sucks ass at looking like one.” n since we were provided with a canonical creachure that takes the form of other bugs (including a vessel), I went oh fuck yea. nosk

but a cringe fail nosk. because he’s cringe fail guy

and it’d make SENSE that a nosk would take the form of a vessel to fit in because we see vessels strung up in the nosk den. totally plausible for a nosk to assume creachures outside Deepnest can just Look Like That.  And/or Zote specifically heard about the Hollow Knight somehow and was like omg no way? real knight hero moment and just * becomes *

My brain did not assume he was the same species as Elderbug for the simple reason of different number of legs (Elderbug has four in the official art, Zote has two) and that both are clearly adults yet hardly look alike But also it’s totally possible that Elderbug is many molts ahead of Zote, and/or my favorite personal theory of Elderbug trans (in most IRL bug species, the females are much larger than the males; so Elderbug ftm trans? true)

As for more nosk!zote shit I just held the precepts in my hands and went “no way? epic” shdgKH. Especially that one about Not Trusting Reflections(tm). Seemed a lil sus if u ask me And those two separate precepts about darkness. Because Deepnest dark (true) And and that precept about Choosing Your Own Fate (choosing to not be a nosk HUH? HM? Totally true and valid. Trust me)

And also me getting a little confused over Zote’s routing and things he says . Because we meet him in Greenpath first, then see him in Dirtmouth. Wherein I first interpreted how he was speaking to imply he’d never been to Dirtmouth before, which would be a bit strange if he had to pass through there to get into Hallownest Then I realize that the implication of that only exists if u squint and stretch it but yknow whatever He DOES have some sus dreamnail dialogue here though . When he says Dirtmouth reminds him of home in that it’s “dreary” and “ghastly” - considering this is ... really the only dialogue in-game that possibly suggests he’s not from Hallownest, but it could be totally hinting at the very much ghastly Deepnest, then, yknow, I’m j,

And also also Zote having a stupid amount of defense for how much of a shit fighter he is. This man tanky he takes a lot of hits in the Colosseum and doesn’t even die at the end! So (and hear me out) what if secretly nosk, and thus has secretly stronger shell, like nosk has, because nosk also has a lot of health (way more than Zote does, but Zote also still a weak pissbaby, and that nosk is infected, which we know boosts strength, so, yknow, what i mean,)

But in the end I think zote’s a nosk just because I think it’s funny (and because I spent a year writing a fic about it) (that does things to ur brain)

and that one thing that team cherry said about anything that’s not explicitly denied in-game could be canon,