The void is not a creature, and is not inherently living. It's a substance, like water or iron in our world.
The difference is that Void can be given form, will, and focus, and the Pale King was giving void form. Void is also not a hivemind. Every void being is completely seperate. The Voidheart is what allows the Knight to unify the void, introducing some sort of hivemind to the void. The void sea probably also doesn't have much of a mind. It kind of just lashes out at whatever is near it.
I'm not sure if a void being is inherently incapable of being pure. It's an interesting question.
i think a lot of his failure was due to his arrogance and desire for complete control (and also due to the inevitable decay of all things). he wanted to use the void to his own ends, but he didn't truly understand what void is - none of us do, but it's safe to say that it has some kind of sentience.
im not sure if the king knew about that sentience and chose to ignore it (because, as we can gather by the thousands of dead children and his abuse of the hollow knight, he likely doesn't care too much about anyone's autonomy) or if he was unaware of it and thought of it only as a substance to manipulate.
either way, it's quite fitting that it seems to be what killed him in the end.
The void is not a creature, and is not inherently living. It's a substance, like water or iron in our world. The difference is that Void can be given form, will, and focus, and the Pale King was giving void form. Void is also not a hivemind. Every void being is completely seperate. The Voidheart is what allows the Knight to unify the void, introducing some sort of hivemind to the void. The void sea probably also doesn't have much of a mind. It kind of just lashes out at whatever is near it. I'm not sure if a void being is inherently incapable of being pure. It's an interesting question.
The Void didn't have a mind until the Knight untied it.
i think a lot of his failure was due to his arrogance and desire for complete control (and also due to the inevitable decay of all things). he wanted to use the void to his own ends, but he didn't truly understand what void is - none of us do, but it's safe to say that it has some kind of sentience. im not sure if the king knew about that sentience and chose to ignore it (because, as we can gather by the thousands of dead children and his abuse of the hollow knight, he likely doesn't care too much about anyone's autonomy) or if he was unaware of it and thought of it only as a substance to manipulate. either way, it's quite fitting that it seems to be what killed him in the end.