“Seth’s soul lives on in a video game”: A Silksong boss kicking butts in the endgame was designed by a young Hollow Knight fan 6 years ago before he died of cancer
By Austin Wood
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Hollow Knight: Silksong
“Seth’s soul lives on in a video game”: A Silksong boss kicking butts in the endgame was designed by a young Hollow Knight fan 6 years ago before he died of cancer
Austin Wood
15 September 2025
“We made it Seth”
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(Image credit: Team Cherry)
Over six years ago, Hollow Knight fan Seth Goldman met with developer Team Cherry after learning he had ewing sarcoma, a form of cancer most common in young people which targets bones and soft tissue near bones. The developer offered to have Goldman design a boss for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and as more players make their way into the endgame of the long-awaited Metroidvania, that boss is finally getting his chance to shine.
(Minor Silksong endgame spoiler ahead.)
That fittingly named boss is Seth, the guardian of one of Silksong’s final areas and endgame bosses. Armed with a pin and a cymbal-like shield, Seth fights not unlike the boss form of Hornet in Hollow Knight, dashing diagonally and chaining swipe combos into special moves that leverage their unique gear.
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I really can’t wait to encounter Seth in Silksong, and since there’s not much fanart of the guy – i did some myself! from r/HollowKnight
As Seth’s story has reemerged, Silksong fans have gathered to honor Goldman’s memory once again. “I wish so badly that we could play Silksong together too, but I’m glad you’ll still be there in some form,” Reddit user EvidenceEquivalent38 writes in a recent post.
Goldman sadly passed away several years ago, as The Gamer reported in 2020, so his custom boss Seth is now carrying his memory. Per The Gamer’s report, Goldman’s father said, “Seth had a real dream come true” and “Seth’s soul lives on in a video game and in the hearts of all that knew him.”
That was in an old email to Krystal DeWitt Monroy, program services director of the Marty Lyons Foundation non-profit, which works to “fulfill the wishes” of children ages 3 to 17 with terminal or life-threatening illnesses, sent after Goldman’s death. The Marty Lyons Foundation helped arrange the meeting between Goldman and Team Cherry.
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Goldman teased his custom boss in a Reddit post of his own in April 2020. “I made a character for Silksong,” he wrote.
“So some backstory, I have Ewing sarcoma, a type of cancer (which I’m still fighting, support is appreciated) but my wish was to talk to Team Cherry, which was super fun. But after the talk they said I can make a character, which I did, he’s really cool and has a boss fight but I can’t show you anything besides the name which I named him after myself (Seth) but a blog post is coming soon so I can’t [wait] for you to see him, and see his cool lore and design and gameplay.”
I’ve scoured the internet for the blog post in question, but couldn’t find an old mention of Seth beyond a Discord tease from Team Cherry’s Matthew “Leth” Griffin. Seth was one of the Silksong secrets hidden in a series of riddles, one of which reads:
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To find me, dream of a spider’s web
A site with a wondrous view
I dwell among visions of dangerous foes
Near colored lands berry and blue
The visions’ arrangement, left, right and left
Depicting an exciting story
Among words they lie there frozen in time
Anticipating tales of glory
To the west, green is nearly all I see
Where dangers are raining down
Among the ancient text here is hidden
A pass-word that may be found
To remove the lock we need the key
Ignoring the title we proceed finally
Now count the number of visions you see
And move through the text accordingly
Bruised Hollow Knight: Silksong fans discover Team Cherry already explained why the Metroidvania is so hard years ago – and it’s all because of Hornet’s healing.
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Austin Wood
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Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He’s been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They’ve yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he’s kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
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“Anything related to Silksong releasing would be the doom of the project,” lead on gorgeous Hollow Knight fan game once worried, but after 2 years of work it looks like it will launch this year
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