Spoiler warning for all of HK & Silksong.
I am very intrigued by the revelations about lifeblood in Silksong. While in Hollow Knight it was just a boon and something that seemed benevolent, in contrast Silksong showed that it can also be maleficent in excess just like Radiance's infection taking over its host. The lifeseeds in HK were pretty much colourswapped versions (but weren't exactly, so hats off to the commitment of drawing new sprites) of the lightseeds, so the similarity was foreshadowed.
It seems that our little ghost from the first game was indeed suitable to host another god's infection without being influenced by it. It didn't have any problem with plasmification as Hornet does.
But seeing how fast it overtakes the wormways is creepy and also puts Joni the heretic and her exile certainly in a new perspective. The buzzsaw king probably didn't want another infection in his kingdom and I certainly don't blame him any longer for that.
The fascinating part to me is that lifeblood and the connected god seem very parallel to the Radiance and her infection. But instead of wanting to be worshipped, this god seems to hate death itself and wants to make every being live eternally. The regeneration factor on plasmified Zango is showing how strong it can be, even reviving already dead bugs. But as the plasmified worms show, they aren't exactly friendly or peaceful like Joni implied, but rather exactly like the infected bugs, attacking everyone who isn't infected like them.
One thing I only thought about now that I reread the wiki entries to the lifeblood: Hornet doesn't know about the blue substance before, only referring to a similar infection, i.e. the Radiance's orange goo. Meaning that the whole heresy of Joni happened and was dealt with by the king in secrecy or before Hornet was even born. Since the lifeblood room is in the Abyss and I don't think they would have built the birth place around it, my head canon is that the king dealt with it secretly in order to stop the knowledge of another infection able to destroy his kingdom to proliferate. And the lifeblood god made their home then in the abyss, because all the suffering attracted it and also the proximity to the void made it maybe easy to hide.
Now with the knowledge that the lifeblood infection also overtakes its host and is pretty much the same as the Radiance's, it puts the king's handling of Joni's heresy in a bit better light. He was trying to protect the minds of his subjects, giving them conciousness instead of just another hivemind controlling them, be it orange or blue.
I really hope that a possible third Hollow Knight game (as teased by the "to be continued" after the mushroom ending in Silksong) deals with Lifeblood in more detail. I find what is revealed about it for now fascinating and would like to see it more explored. Since the connected god seems rather shy, my feeling is it doesn't exactly want another infection like the Radiance's, but doesn't know any other way and thinks, that this is still better than all the bugs simply dying. But hopefully we will see... in 10 years or so...
Long text, but what are your thoughts about it? did you like the bossfight against plasmified Zango? I found it interesting lorewise, but tiring gameplaywise.
