Unraveling the Lore of Mister Mushroom Script
If we want to understand
Mister Mushroom, then the obvious place to start is with Schrödinger’s
Equation. One of the most prevailing theories in the realm of quantum mechanics
is the many world interpretation first postulated by Hugh Everett III. The seeming
collapse of the wavefunction of a photon first demonstrated by the now infamous
double slit experiment is no longer an issue, because the superposition is
extended beyond the particle to include the measuring device and the human
observer. Team Cherry are clearly fans of Everett’s work, as Mister Mushroom is
definite proof of the many worlds interpretation being true in the world of
Hollow Knight.
Now video games having
multiple or parallel universes is not a unique concept. Dark Souls I uses it as
a clever excuse to allow for a canonical explanation for PvP. Dark Souls III
uses it as a lazy excuse to reuse characters for the sake of fanservice.
Undertale uses it as well, but I’m not touching that game with a ten foot pole.
But Mister Mushroom is a
bit more unique. Just to catch anyone up who doesn’t know, Mister Mushroom is
this weird NPC that shows up in various places throughout Hallownest. His
location is hinted at by this strange lore tablet located in the Kingdom’s
Edge. The tablet begins by saying “We speak the path of the Master Herald,
he who would signal an Age's end.”
Mister Mushroom will
only appear after the Knight has destroyed the three Dreamers. So the ending
age in this instance would appear to be the end of the stasis over Hallownest.
After interacting with Mister Mushroom with the Spore Shroom charm equipped in
every location, he will literally rocket into the sky like how I assume Elon
Musk gets around. He then appears after the game’s credits as the words “To Be
Continued” are thrown on the screen in giant letters like this is a fucking
JoJo reference.
[Funny Meme Music]
Now the fact that “To Be
Continued” only shows up with Mister Mushroom implies that he is connected to a
future game from Team Cherry. And as we start to analyze his dialogue, we’ll
see that this makes like 40% sense, which is pretty good for Hollow Knight
lore.
So basically you can
encounter Mister Mushroom a total of seven times in game. Each time, he is
basically ignoring us and appears to be talking to somebody else. Now,
mushrooms in Hollow Knight exhibit a shared mind, meaning they can talk to each
other in a manner similar to telepathy. So it makes sense that Mister Mushroom
could be talking to somebody else.
Once we meet Mister Mushroom for the final time, he finally does talk to the Knight, giving a flowery speech about journeys and destinations and all that garbage. But what is more interesting here is how he has conversations with creatures we cannot see. Who exactly is Mister Mushroom talking to? Well, I would say we know with a good deal of certainty what at least two of these conversations are actually about.
Let’s start with the
first conversation. Mister Mushroom mentions that the person he is talking to
was able to save their friend, and also mentions that this person isn’t hungry
anymore. This is a pretty obvious reference to Hungry Knight, the first game
ever made by Team Cherry. Hungry Knight was made during Ludum Dare 27, a
popular game jam event. William Pellen and Ari Gibson used this game jam as a
way to practice working together on games, and Hungry Knight was the result. In
this game, you play as the Hungry Knight, who has to eat cherries to stay alive
so they can bring their friend back from the dead by collecting masks. But
apparently, this character we see in Hungry Knight is somehow talking to Mister
Mushroom from Hollow Knight, which in turn, would mean that the Knight and the
Hungry Knight are in the same multiverse.
Now before you shit my
pants and try to tell me that this completely breaks the entire lore of Hollow
Knight, let me point out that Team Cherry does this type of stuff in other
parts of the game as well. Let’s take a look at the Shrine of Believers. In the
Spirit’s Glade, the Knight is able to access a hidden area, full of strange
tablets. The text on these tablets are actually messages from Kickstarter
backers, who backed Hollow Knight in 2014.
Some of these are pretty
interesting, like the references to Dark Souls, because you guys remember Dark
Souls, right? This one is a stolen quote from H.P. Lovecraft. This one just
says “The Collective lives on.” This one talks about a guy named Baron
Robert Apples who was the first of his kind to enslave a Gantrus. What the fuck
is a Gantrus? Let’s see here. Uhh… Umm…. I’m just gonna…
Anyway, this area is
guarded by this solitary moth spirit who explains that these utterings are from
a group of people united in a mysterious cause who exist in another world. This
implies that the Hollow Knight kickstarter and our very reality are actually a
part of Hollow Knight canon. This means that technically King of the Hill and
Hollow Knight are in the same universe. So basically what I am saying is,
expect a Bobby Hill lore video very soon.
Getting back to Mister
Mushroom, we have a pretty good idea about what his third conversation is
referring to. He is talking about how the dead have no use for wealth and how
this person is providing for a big brood. This is a clear reference to the
other game Team Cherry created before working on Hollow Knight: Tomb Cat. This
was a game where you raid pyramids for money so that you could take care of
your young.
These two references are
the most obvious. In fact, in his final encounter, Mister Mushroom hints at
these games again. He says:
And if those stops can't be lovely things,
wouldn't you say? Transcendent plateaus, distant sandy lands, vast ancient
kingdoms. Yours was not the first, nor will it be the last, but it's a unique
and special thing nonetheless.
Transcendent plains,
distant sandy lands, and vast ancient kingdoms seem to relate to Hungry Knight,
Tomb Cat and Hollow Knight respectively. This dialogue also reinforces the idea
that Mister Mushroom is some kind of traveler, moving through the lands created
by Team Cherry.
But of course, this is
where our tracks stop cold. Mister Mushroom still has five more dialogue
entries we need to analyze. And I’m sure you’re a super busy person with very
little free time to waste, so let me just say that we are about to enter pure
speculation territory. I have spent the last three years of my life thinking
about this shit, but at the end of the day, this dialogue is just too open
ended to really nail down.
Now there are other
games that have been produced by William Pellen and Ari Gibson separately.
Through his job at an animation company, Ari Gibson worked on classics like de
Blob, Megamind: Mega Team Unite, de Blob 2 and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last
Airbender. Now it’s been a while since I’ve watched Shyamalan’s breathtaking
film, but I think there is something to do with Sokka’s girlfriend becoming the
spirit of the moon because the previous spirit of the moon was killed when the
fire nation attacked. And in conversation six, Mister Mushroom says to trust
the moon. So maybe he is talking to Sokka?
“It’s a giant mushroom.”
Megamind is all about
how our perceptions of heroes and villians often lack nuance, and tend to
change over time. This theme lines up pretty nicely with conversation four.
As for William, he
worked on several video games by himself in his free time. The two most popular
games like this are Return to Booty Grotto and Lulanda. Unfortunately, neither
one of these games seem to be related to Mister Mushroom at all. But of course,
William has come up with several games that we only know a little bit about.
When he was a kid, William would make game manuals for his own game ideas. What
if Mister Mushroom is actually talking to characters from these games William
designed back in the 90s like Castlemania III or Shadowmaster: Quest of the
Past.
In fact, William
actually designed a board game called The Egyptian Game. In this game, you had
to find a sphinx's nose while avoiding evil Mummies and… Sonic? Now this is
clearly just a Chutes and Ladders rip off. But this game is all about finding a
nose, and in conversation two, Mister Mushroom mentions “if you have a keen
nose, use it”. This is an oddly specific reference. Also he says to beware of
those who are hunting you. ie the mother fucking mummies and the mother fucking
Sonic. So in this instance, Mister Mushroom would be talking to whoever played
this board game that William made when he was a child, which makes a lot of
sense if… if you… think…
Okay this might be a
dead end.
Let’s rethink this. We
have five conversations left to figure out, but they don’t seem to be
referencing any games William and Ari worked on separately. Perhaps these are
references to games that Team Cherry didn’t actually work on. But how would we
ever figure out which games these would be? I mean, just think about how many
games exist today. There must be at least 30. Well, it would make the most
sense to look at games that we know Team Cherry took inspiration from when
making Hollow Knight. This includes Zelda II, the Adventure of Link, Faxanadu,
Paper Mario, Pikmin, Mega Man X, Super Metroid, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow,
and Ori and the Will of the Wisp, er…wait.
If we dig through these
games hard enough, maybe we can see some connection between them and Mister
Mushroom’s dialogue. As it turns out, conversation six actually kinda lines up
with the story of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. We, of course have the moon,
where Dracula’s castle was sealed away in 1999, as well as the double crossing
Graham who actually is only interested in becoming the reincarnated Dracula
which he thinks is possible because he was born the same day Dracula was
destroyed and that… I’m sorry, what was that? You have no idea what the fuck
I’m talking about? Well… maybe you need a little context.
The lore of Castlevania begins
in the year 1094. Leon Belmont is a hero of knighthood, but one day his fiance
Sara was kidnapped. Leon learns from his bedridden friend Mathias Cronqvist,
that his love has been stolen by a malicious vampire going by the terrifying
name, Walter. Unfortunately, by the time Leon finds his beloved, Sara has
already been tainted by the vampire, so she sacrificed her soul to enchant
Leon’s whip, turning it into the Vampire Killer. So Leon kills Walter, but it
turns out this whole thing was orchestrated by Mathias, who then becomes a
vampire himself and flees into the country, becoming known as Dracula. In
retaliation, Leon Belmont swears that the Belmont family will hunt down
vampires for as long as the game franchise is profitable.
And so Dracula keeps
trying to wipe out humanity as the Belmonts keep bitch slapping his ass back
into his coffin for another prolonged hibernation. It isn’t until 1999
that the epic Demon Castle Wars take place and it is believed that Dracula is
finally destroyed once and for all. His giant castle is sealed away inside the
darkness of an eclipse and the Catholic church tries to erase all memory of
Dracula or the Belmont family.
This brings us to 2035,
when the events of Aria of Sorrow finally take place. Two childhood friends,
Soma Cruz and Mina Hakuba are going to the Hakuba Shrine to witness the first
solar eclipse of the century. But they end up actually traveling into the eclipse
and arriving at Dracula’s castle. Soma learns that he has the power to control
monsters, and starts on a quest to escape Dracula’s castle and learn a little
bit about himself along the way. To do so he leaves Mina behind in a protective
barrier created by Genya Arikado, who is actually Dracula’s son Alucard in
disguise. You see back in the 15th century Dracula fucked doctor but then she…
you know what, nevermind. It’s a whole thing.
Anyway, Soma meets a
cast of colorful characters who also happen to be running around Dracula’s
castle, such as Genya, Yoko Belnades, Hammer, and Julius Belmont. But there is
one character, Graham Jones, who believes he is destined to become the next
Dracula. He doesn’t mention this when Soma first meets him, and Yoko even warns
Soma to be weary of Graham. So yeah, a lot of this tracks to what Mister
Mushroom actually says. Mentioning that the person left a girl somewhere,
telling them to trust in something, but not a certain man, mentioning the moon.
Not sure why you would trust the moon, but you know what let’s just ignore
that.
So that just leaves us
with four more conversations to figure out. As for conversation two, the
comment about not relying on your eyes and using your nose might be a reference
to Pikmin, because Captain Olimar’s eyes are never fucking open and he’s got a
giant ass schnauzer. And there are numerous natural predators to the pikmin.
Such as the Bulborb, the Waterwraith, the Smoky Progg, the Scuttlebug, Celine
Dion, the Albino Bulborb, the Puffstool, the Fiery Young Yellow Wollywag, and
of course, the Bike Bulborb.
As for conversation
five, it mentions coming back up because things down below are dangerous, and
that they could come back up and wander around aimlessly. Now this sounds like
the general experience people have while playing a Metroidvania, so I could see
this being a cheeky reference to Metroid or Super Metroid, since those games
start from the top and then go downward. Also, maybe I’m just stupid but it’s
really easy to get lost in these games.
Conversation four uses
both the words “hero” and “time”, so let’s just say that’s a reference to
Zelda.
That just leaves one
final conversation from Mister Mushroom. “It’s not by tools that you’ll
triumph, it’s through your smarts, your speed, your determination...”. Now
this is so nondescript and vague that this could be talking about anything,
Paper Mario, Mega Man X, or maybe even one of these weeb shit games.
So to recap, these are
the characters Mister Mushroom might be talking to. But to be honest, this
whole thing seems a bit weird. Would Team Cherry really try and shove their own
character into the lore of other games? Like, is that even allowed? It’s one
thing when Dead Cells includes a picture of the Knight in their game, but to
have your character actually talk to characters from another universe? What if
JK Rowling decided to tweet that Harry Potter did blow with Patrick Star? You
know what? Fuck the entire notion of fiction. From now on I’m sticking to real
stuff like true crime podcasts and professional wrestling.
But of course, there is
one other explanation for Mister Mushroom’s additional lines of dialogue.
Perhaps Mister Mushroom is reaching forward through time to talk to characters
from games Team Cherry hasn’t even made yet. So in this case, it would
literally be impossible to know what Mister Mushroom is talking about, because
these games don’t exist yet. Of course there is Silksong, which could
theoretically line up with either conversation five or seven since they reference
things like hunting, gathering and tools.
Aside from that, we are
aware of one other game Team Cherry might be working on. Another Hollow Knight
YouTuber known as Relyea made a video discussing the discovery of a trademark
filed by Team Cherry for the phrase “Fearless Fox”. And after doing a bit of
sleuthing myself, I discovered that foxes actually have noses. So this could be
a reference to conversation two.
But that’s where our
leads drop dead. Maybe Team Cherry will go back and make “Castlemania III”,
or “War of S.P.O.R.E. II” or maybe they’ll finally make “Ultra
Dangerous Guys 64”. So I guess I’ll have to make a follow up video to this
in 30 years once Team Cherry has made two or three more games.
And so this video comes
to an end. Mister Mushroom is definitely supposed to be some kind of Easter Egg
character that makes references to other video games, and in doing so, proves
that Hollow Knight is a part of some kind of multiverse. And who knows, maybe
the Knight will be able to travel to different parts of the multiverse. Maybe
it will make a cameo in Fearless Fox, or some other Team Cherry game. Maybe it
will even help the Avenger’s by climbing inside Thanos’ asshole.
Relyea’s Video:
Team Cherry BrutalGamer
Interview:
List of songs:
Crystal Peak - Main Loop
File Select (SM64)
Fungal Wastes OST
Dung Defender OST
New Dream Cello
USSR National Anthem
Greenpath - Main Loop
City of Tears - Inside
Loop
Daughter of Hallownest
OST
Bloody Tears/Monster
Dance (SSBU)
Castle Corridor (Aria of
Sorrow)
Reflection OST
Escape from the City
(Sonic Adventure 2)
Last Surprise (Persona
5)
Kingdom’s Edge OST
Queen’s Garden OST
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