Roderigo is a desperate man, who makes several mistakes out of desperation, and doesn’t even realize that he made mistakes in his death. In literature, he’s a classic example of what desperation is capable of doing to a person, and others like him are commonly still depicted in media today.

Hollow Knight is a 2017 adventure video game, taking place in the abandoned insect  kingdom of Hallownest. The kingdom, once thriving, was destroyed by an infection created by the moth God of Light, the Radiance. The ruler of this once great civilization, the Pale King, hatched a plan to stop this infection. Leading to the death of possibly thousands of his insectoid children.

Many people consider the Pale King to be one of the worst characters in Hollow Knight, due to his abhorrent actions, but if you take a deeper look, he was really just a desperate man (or more accurately, wyrm)  trying to save his kingdom.

The Pale King’s plan to defeat this infection involves “using a Vessel to seal her away. These Vessels are the children of him and the White Lady [The Queen of Hallownest], born in the Abyss with Void inside of them.” This process, regrettably, involved the death of any of the children that he used for this plan. And in the game, this birthplace of the vessels can be seen, littered with the corpses of the children. One however, made it out. This vessel rose to the top of the Abyss and helped the Pale King with his goal.

The Abyss in Hollow Knight, the floor littered with deceased Vessels. “The Abyss” on Fandom

But even this process didn’t result in a happy ending for the vessel, the titular Hollow Knight. The plan the Pale King had for the Hollow Knight was to use its mind to trap the infection within itself.

Despite the fact that the Hollow Knight was meant to be hollow (hence the name), it wasn’t. Leading to the infection continuing to spread throughout the kingdom. The Hollow Knight is now both spreading the infection, and containing it within himself. What’s left of the Pale King is his body on a throne, with his last words showing how desperate he was stuck in the mind of his corpse, “No Cost Too Great”.

The Hollow Knight as an adult, chained up to contain the infection. “The Hollow Knight” by IGN

While we do know that the Pale King was attached to his one child, we do know that he still thought what he did was just, judging by his final words. We see that he never quite realized that he made such terrible mistakes. But the biggest mistake of all was that the Pale King never thought to check beforehand if his plan could even work, he simply let a goddesses infection plague his own child’s mind. To me, that shows the level of desperation he felt, and what caused him to go in over his head.

This all is an incredibly similar story of what happened to Roderigo in Othello, albeit on a much smaller scale. Because of his desire to be with Desdemona, Roderigo lets himself be manipulated by Iago, making him a puppet for him. Roderigo never realized this however, as he’s killed in the dark by Iago beforehand.

Both of these characters are victims of their own desperation, whether from desire or duty, these characters both had a Dunning-Kreuger moment, and it lead to their downfalls and deaths. But at least they died for what they believe in, and at least they thought there was no cost too great.