Kenri posted...
I just got to this part of the game and it legitimately makes me like Hornet less.
It's so weird and out of character that it's honestly kind of funny to me after the initial shock wears off
My most generous possible read is that I wonder if they are trying to very subtly do something with
player agency without calling attention to it in a meta way. The Green Prince's entire questline is about repeatedly denying his wishes and ignoring his explicit warnings to you. He tells you to not let him out of the cage and you do it anyways, afaik he never gets out if you don't do this. By the way, a hilarious interaction in hindsight because Hornet's in-universe reasoning for doing this boils down to "I dunno man I had a key and it fit the lock I'm just opening doors dude." You destroy the Cogwork Dancers without him, denying him any sense of closure (though you don't have a choice in doing this). And then of course you have to play the "steal your heart" song and go through Verdania as he tells you to fuck off (though, he was the very first one of these I encountered so I was not expecting this in the slightest). There's only the barest in-universe justification for any of this unless Hornet just hates this gay bug man in particular. So really, this mostly serves as a fuck you to the player for secret hunting as the NPC specifically tells you to not do it.
Again, overly generous but the only thing I can come up with when I question "what did team cherry mean by this." At the very least I will NOT be doing this sidequest in future playthroughs that aren't completionist (and technically,
killing him isn't even worth a percentage point!)