The fact that Baz is fought by plague knight second is confirmed by this line “Watch out for that shovel knight guy! I coulda whipped him pretty good, but the BAZ is merciful”
This is really thought out, and it would make sense that plague knight would lie about the shovel knight stuff, *surely Mona would be impressed that Plague Knight could kick Shovel Knight's ass.* Mona: so you even beat Shovel Knight? PK: err, yeah! He didn't stand a chance! And I even re-beat him and the entire order when we all met up at the tower of fate! If he was just an observer in the boss rush incident, he would have seen shovel knight using all those useless relics, and incorporated them in his story to seem even cooler, explaining how Shovel Knight somehow had the Horn during their fight even though he wouldn't have gotten that yet.
@Samuel Anderson that does make a lot of sense, I hadn't even considered it since Mona was the goal of his campaign. I can see him hanging out in the town bar and telling his tale to any who would listen.
For the Boss Rush, I would like to think that it was actually a "Battle Royale", Everyone against everyone, but this explanation seems to be the more acurrate one...
late reply but "unreliable narrator" isn't just headcanon, it's what YCG intended. I didn't make that up for this video, my source was actual tweets from YCG that I couldn't find when making this video. I've since found them and updated the description. Here they are: twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st... twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st... twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st... twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st... twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st...
Plague of Shadows Endgame Spoiler: It could also be that Plague of Shadows is Plague Knight telling Mona how he found everyone's essense/how they fell in love together, seen at the end of the story. After all, he does try to impress her alot(And tries to not really dance near her)
T3alZ3r0 & Mag3nta F1v3 i like this better too, plague knight doesn't feel the type to lie unless Mona is involved. I do prefer the idea that plague knight fought the order though because its funnier that shovel knight arrives to see all his enemies fighting each other
@@lafayettemclaren5195 the other campaigns show that none of them are truly evil, more just selfish, and they quabble and fight a LOT, so it's not unreasonable to believe that they legitimately were just having a battle royale and shovel/plague tunnel visioned on their fights while telling the story
@@pikapete2719 I consider Treasure Knight to be a Pirate Captain so he could be kind of evil but yes, the rest of the order are merely adventures of sorts, even King Knight. Also if Plague Knight thought the Plague of Shadows and then the Corrupt Essence at the moment of Shovel Knight's final bosses that could make the whole story work out in the end.
Another possible explanation for the boss rush is that Shovel Knight just dreamt the entire thing up while he was unconcious, and that plague knight actually defeated the order.
True, another thing is since they’re told by two different people some things may be slightly different, like how minor gameplay differences, etc etc (I mostly forgot what examples I was gonna use) but if two people told the same or similar stories based on how they felt it would be different
the theory is that, plague knight is the one who fought the order at the tower, and the whole fight from shovel knights story was his dream, as hes asleep during the fight.
Thinking of shovel knight's fight with plague knight, I can just imagine that plague was like: "Oh yeah man it was really hard to beat shovel knight, like he pulled out a war horn, (which plague knew about from the final table) and a bunch of other stuff! It was really challenging, but in the end I won. You may have found me fainted on the ground, but that's only because I was really tired after defeating shovel knight!"
can we also just talk about How Reize Completely confused the Shovel knight and Plague knights by their actions?. how he peiceved Shovel knight as a bad guy and Plague knight looking like someone you could trust.
One could argue that shovel knight has to deal with black knight causing trouble and looking very similar to him but plague knight is literally a baddie and constantly being ambushed by the police
This video released a year and a half ago, yet most of the comments are from the last 2 days. UA-cam's algorithm is a mystery, and yes, I too came here because this suddenly kept popping up in my recommendations. Oh yeah, the video itself, it's good. I like that you kept it simple and only adressed the parts people were likely to question. And it did help keep things in order. I was wondering how people interpreted the way these stories play out with each other.
The algorithm is quite crazy, but coincidentally it gave me the views now while I had just started to get back into making videos. Got some more in the works so stay tuned!
I know this is an older video, but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who sees it this way. Really annoyed me when Plague of Shadows was new and everyone was saying it didn't fit canonically. Also, you have crazy speedrunning skills!
I guess this could be explained with the story telling logic, but in the shovel knight campaign after the boss rush if you choose to save them plauge knight is there, but in plauge of shadows he bomb bursts away
If Shovel Of Hope is a more trusty retelling of the story, saying “and then I helped everyone to get up from there” implies that he ALSO did it to Plague Knight, meanwhile Plague Knight could say in his retelling “and then I got out of there to meet the Enchantress before that blue digger got first” which could explain why in PoS Shovel Knight is kind of a dick leaving the Order to hang around Because PK wasn’t there anymore
Here I am thinking I’m really good at the plague knight campaign because I’ve done most of his difficulty runs and collected everything but here you are just blazing past everything with spikes just brushing your hood.
It's really convenient that Plague of Shadows happens at basically the SAME TIME as Shovel of Hope, so Plague Knight can arrive first where it counts and last in other places.
@@floatingf8783 Not true. He arrived at the Explodatorium before Plague Knight. When Plague Knight arrives, his minion warns him that there's an intruder about. Plague Knight does beat him to the boss chamber, though. lol
Something i really don't like is that we cannot use Plague Knight's boss outfit. His short/cute sprite is just ridiculous compared to the taller, scary and awesome boss sprite ): when we fight Shovel Knight in Explodatorium we should be able to use the other outfit. Anyway, that's really disapointing to me, because doesn't feel the same.
My deeper analysis behind this based on the fight vs plague of shadows boss in this campaign, based on the perspective explanation, is that plague perceives himself as small and weak and that's why he looks smaller and wesker in his campaign, but in other campaigns he's bigger and scarier because that's how others perceive him. The plague of shadows and the corrupted essence battles represent an internal struggle imo and do not actually physically happen because that wouldn't make sense, so it makes sense that plague would fight that version of himself in that context
I agree though that ideally plague would use his boss sprite, but thaf would require a whole new game to be made rather than an alternate campaign since plague wouldn't be able to fit in SK's levels without even more modification than they already have
Basically the only parts that are my head canon's is plague knight coming first through the levels he lost to shovel knight but grabs his essences while sleeping, and yada yada plague knight being beaten last and destorying the tower with the potion at the same time From my personal headcanon
I feel like shovel knight wouldn't be perfectly fine for one of his main places of business to be taken over to him is a psychotic potion brewing maniac
If you're referring to the armor outpost, maybe shovel knight will liberate the armor outpost from plague knight in a sequel game... Or maybe plague knight has renounced mischief all together by then as implied by the ending of PoS
One thing i'm wondering is, how does Plague Knight get the Bards sheets and give them to Percy to throw away if Shovel Knight also finds them and gives them to the Bard?
I've got a question. If Plague Knight goes through all these stages just before Shovel Knight does, then what's the deal with the final Black Knight battle? If Plague Knight fights him first, then how is he already powered up by the Enchantress, when we already know he gets those powers right before Shovel Knight's battle? I guess Plague Knight could be lying about that as well, but how would he know what the upgraded battle with Black Knight could have been like if he charged into the Tower before it happened?
That's the one time shovel does the level first; note the dialogue and the absence of chester, the previous evidence for their order of level traversal. I'm surprised i didn't mention this in the video when i made it
As for Shovel Knight having the horn early, since that was brought up at the start but not explained later, I always interpreted that as meaning Plauge of Shadows takes place during Shovel Knight's New Game Plus. Whether or not a New Game Plus is even canon in the first place though could easily be up to debate, ahaha
You know what dude? This was a really good video. Even disregarding the less than steller Microphone, the points you make all make sense. I myself have always seen it as Plague Knight just pretending he beat Shovelknight which is why he makes him out to be a bit of a jerk.
At first I’ve been wanting a shovel knight sequel Then I release there are four shovel knight games and two combing on the way plus a board game Why am I complaining
Ah thank you youtube for recommanding this random video I didn't ask for. But seriously tho, nice theory, ya really explained it well. U my friend earned a subscriber
@@pikapete2719 I dont remember how their fight actually ended. I remember you defeat Shovel Knight and then he suddenly defeats you. But I like to imagine that Plague Knight just tricked Shovel Knight and pretended to be defeated while stealing his essence. I mean he is like mad scientist and he looks like that type of character that plays villian role for a hero but actually has his own plans on situation.
That only leaves one question and I'm not sure if someone has already given an answer but that's besides the point. How did plague knight get get shovel knights essence
@@llewellynhehir6718 So essentially, the boss fight going Plague Knight's way up until the sneak attack after seemingly beating Shovel Knight is his version of how it happened, while the campsite scene could very well be reality.
I think that the boss rush in Shovel Knight's perspective is more of a dream, because in PoS, we can see him sleeping before having a boom to pick with Plague Knight.
@@loganandreassen2821 Well, the boss rush also goes in a random order in PoS. The only canon order doesn't need very much of things, except that it end up with Plague Knight, so it would be at the bottom of the line.
@@pikapete2719 yeah I always imagined Shovel Knight telling his story and getting to plague knights battle and being like "He was wearing a horrible bird mask the size of my arm!"
really really late reply, but I was using a program called STrainer to teleport around levels and change my character in the game to capture footage more easily. The reason for the Body Swap is because this file I recorded on was originally a Shovel of Hope file... All the footage was recorded on the same file, if I remember correctly (but I could be wrong, I made this a long time ago)
EXTRA THEORY : when shovel knight drops into the boss rush and gets knocked out. He dreams that he didn’t get knocked out and dreams that he is fighting all the order in the boss rush. Then before he could fight plague knight in the dream he wakes up and fights the actual plague knight. Simple!
The way I had interperted the boss rush is that plague knight did most of the fighting and that shovel knight had hurt his head when he fell which can be seen by him looking confused while sitting at the table. So that when you are playing as shovel knight you see things from his perspective in which he had a hallucination/dream he fought the knights instead of plague knight however this doesn't explain how shovel knight had the horn in the explodatorium fight so YCG's explanation makes more sense.
I really like the way that the games are two parallel stories, happening just moments apart from each other. Makes Plague of Shadows feel like an alternate character mode without making it entirely non cannon. Shovel Knight does win both fights in both games, although the details of the battle itself seem to be a bit different mainly for gameplay purposes. Guess they thought a scripted loss would be anticlimactic, so they wait until after the fight to make you "lose". The fact there's no direct sequel in terms of the timeline (and it's never brought up in Pocket Dungeon or Dig) is also interesting, as it leaves it to the player to decide whether it really was Plague Knight or Shovel Knight who had the upper hand in those fights
Honestly I think if they’d made a campaign set after the main games that would have been cool. If they ever return to the original SK for whatever reason to make another campaign, I think doing something for treasure or polar knight could be cool. Polar seemingly has the most unknown backstory elements that are hinted at across the game, while treasure knight would just be a cool character to play imo. A campaign about hunting across a continent for bounties would be a nice diversion from the other campaigns, almost like the opposite of how SoT’s levels were given to the player (more open-ended access to levels and more open levels themselves would work with the bounty hunter theme, and having to fight your bounty in whatever area you found them could be super interesting)
I usually just go for default, everything else is usually a downgrade or sidegrade except for cluster powder, impact fuse, and spin burst, but i prefer default over that loadout anyways personally
Another interpretation is just that Shovel Knight got knocked down, but not completely defeated, and he didn’t know what Plaque Knight was doing so didn’t have it in his story, and in the boss rush, Shovel Knight was partially unconscious, and imagined that he fought all the bosses, then actually fought Plague Knight. If you don’t die in the boss rush as Shovel Knight, you fight Plague Knight last by default.
False, the order in the boss rush is random with the exception of polar knight always being in the first three (so that you don't die to instadeath spikes late into the boss rush)
There's no goddamn way Plague Knight was lying about beating up the other 7 knights of the Order of No Quarter one after the other. They'd rightfully be pissed he was stealing their essences, King Knight and Specter Knight specifically would want to gut him like a chicken!
agreed, which is why many others including I subscribe to the "battle royale" theory. you can find the discussion about that in the comments of this video
@Pikapete What if Shovel Knight was lying about the battle royal? I don't think the Enchantress would want to loose any members of the order. So instead of letting the knights kill the betrayer, she'd probably tell them to remind where his place is. This way attacking one after another makes more sense, since they are having fun getting revenge on PK but are not trying to actually kill him.
im pretty sure even yacht has said it is literally the semi-prequel to shovel knight(semi bc it happens either 3 minutes before or at the same time as shovel knight)
@@B11-n8v it doesn't matter because it doesn't cause any timeline issues, confusion, or contradictions so it can just stay in its own perfect little unquestionably canon spot in the timeline, same with koc
Well if it's not there's the fact that king of cards isn't canon because he that one guy drops his key and now he can't get in a door because of that and that would mean specter of torment is not cannon.
this doesnt explain how black knight fought shovel knight and plague knight at the same time. and also managed to bring mona to plague knight to convince him she loves him. while also saving shovel knight from the tower explosion
For me the biggest inconsistency is how King Knight is recruited, as KoC and SoT contradict each other. In SoT Specter Knight recruits King Knight after fighting him, however in KoC King Knight joins the order of no quarter at the end because of the Enchantress' offer.
Specter Knight does not recruit King Knight in SoT. If you pay closer attention to the pre-fight dialogue, it's made clear that King Knight is already with the Enchantress. He's just slacking off and she sends Specter Knight to put him back in his place
Time is a Flat Circle. Every Perception is a Unique Timeline with a character living their "adventure". The inconsistencies between the stories is merely the alterations of Time-Lines based on who our "Hero" is. Some things are inevitable, like Shovel Knights "canon" victory over PK, but seeing as PK is only after essence, not victory, he doesn't have to win for his "continuity" to continue. "Unreliable Narrator" only applies if it is announced that this is a retelling. But it isn't. Its PK's story of what HE was after: being someone Mona would want.
Personally, I like to belive that shovel knight DID pass out for the boss rush, plague knight defeated them all, and shovel knight either didn't remember or was too embarrassed to admit he slept though that many fights
The only part to this that may need more light shed on it is Black Knight. If we are to assume it was Plague Knight's Potion that destroyed the tower, that would mean he would have had to bring Mona to the tower after Shovel Knight and Shield Knight defeated the Enchantress. But...wasn't he busy carrying Shovel Knight back? We can clearly see that the tower blows up before Black Knight arrives at the campsite so how did he manage to bring Mona? Another thing is Shield Knight; If she was holding off the Enchantress up until the Enchantress died, why didn't we see her when Plague Knight left the tower?
If I’m reading your comment right, he could have dropped off mona at the tower, then ran off to help shovel and shield knight (because he leaves mona and plague before they destroy the tower, possibly long before if he brings mona pre-PoS fight, can’t remember the exact order of things). That or again, unreliable narration (although how that works with mona being there is beyond me)
I'm going to watch this vid later. Before I do, I will leave this comment. I personally feel some aspects of Plague of Shadows are canon. Minor spoilers ahead... Mona and Plague Knight having feelings for each other and being partners seems to be hinted at in the other two campaigns, Specter of Torment and King of Cards. (i.e. in the ending credits for Specter of Torment and when you encounter Mona in the second area's Joustus hotspot, as well as speaking to him when he's on the airship, after beat him.) I don't doubt this much is canon. Part of me feels at least some of his journey in Plague of Shadows is canon as again, it's hinted in the finale of Specter of Torment what he's planning for in Plague of Shadows. Not to mention, the link between where Specter Knight actually leaves the Locket to where Shovel Knight finds Chester, who gives him to him for a price is covered by Plague Knight. Not to mention, the fight... From a gameplay perspective, the winner of the fight is whoever, but I do feel Plague Knight could still get Shovel Knight's essence in that one and still be canon. For all we know, he softened up the Enchantress in their fight enough for Shovel Knight to take down. As for how they didn't run in to one another, the fights happened in different locales while the other bosses were at different times. Now, for a more major spoiler and opinion for something else... I personally I feel Specter of Torment's King Knight fight is not canon. It's just there for a gameplay's sake. The real origin story for King Knight is in King of Cards. Go play it if you haven't. It's amazing. It just ultimately makes more sense with how he gets his place in Pridemore Keep in the end.
Actually... In their dialogue in SoT, Spectre Knight and King Knight already know each other, with King Knight calling Spectre a "lazy lapdog", and Spectre Knight saying that King Knight needs to get off his high horse and get to work, implying that he was already appointed king of Pridemoore Keep. Of course, he adds to the total of knights recruited but that may just be for gameplay reasons. Also it's worth noting that in the KoC ending, three knights may have already been recruited to the Order, namely Mole, Tinker, and Polar Knight. The timeline is a bit vague on this, but perhaps Spectre had already met Black Knight and then had worked with the Enchantress in creating the Joustus tournament. After King Knight was first recruited, Spectre had already gotten Mole, Tinker, and Polar in on the Order as well.
"If I had a nickel for every game that had an expansion that has a protagonist mostly associated with green who is part of the enemy team that the main character of the original game fought and is having a similar adventure to them at the same time and is also debated of it is canon or not, i would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice."
Maybe Plague of Shadows really just takes place in ANOTHER save file started by shovel knight after already completing the game once and for the impossible relics in his boss fight, He most likely used one of the cheats
bruh what does her hair have anything to do with it lmao in the beginning of PoS she's sitting at her desk like in SoH and she just gets up, her hair doesn't change between games
I haven't played the game in a while but I believe it's implied that one of them fights reize before the other if you look at the dialogue but I don't remember which
the games got a ton of different color cheat codes that affect nothing gameplay wise but give you a different skin, many speedrunners use them for funsies
I disagree with the Boss rush, If you think about It in shovel Knight story plague Knight IS eating with the order peacefully, witch IS Impossible since he STOLE THEIR ESSENCE, só there is only one explanation, the one who fought the order was plague Knight, HOW? simple: *Imagine you are shovel Knight* *You fight the order* *You fall from the celling and get uncouncious* *The only Seconds you were counsious you saw the order fighting* *When you FINNALY wake up you attack the last member of the order and leave* *Years later someone asks you what happened there... You cant say that you dont know, then what would you say?*
I like to think that Shovel Knight realy lose against Plague Knight, becouse technically Shovel Knight didnt beat the Betrayer at the end, which knock him out and Black Knight had to drag his unconcious ass out of there... Plague Knight kinda did by blowing the shit up. So it would be nice to see SK as a guy who didnt beat anything :)
I don't expect a response since this isn't really a new video, but in one of the clips you were fighting Treasure Knight's body swap design in Plague of Shadows, as far as I'm aware you can only do it in Shovel of Hope. How did you do it? Did you just replace the files for Treasure Knight?
Wait, if PK didn’t beat SK, then how did he get SK’s essence? It only came out after Plague beat Shovel, and SK just stored his essence in a chest after taking it back in physical form.
Wait i've noticed, does shovel knight also lie since plague knight in shove of hope could do some things plague knight in plague of shadows couldn't, like summoning 4 explosive vats or throwing three bombs at the same time?
Check out my newest video here: ua-cam.com/video/kkGiJxChwvc/v-deo.html
Hey hate to reply so late but at 4:35 you have body swap mode on in plague of shadows, how'd you do that?
The fact that Baz is fought by plague knight second is confirmed by this line
“Watch out for that shovel knight guy! I coulda whipped him pretty good, but the BAZ is merciful”
This is really thought out, and it would make sense that plague knight would lie about the shovel knight stuff, *surely Mona would be impressed that Plague Knight could kick Shovel Knight's ass.*
Mona: so you even beat Shovel Knight?
PK: err, yeah! He didn't stand a chance! And I even re-beat him and the entire order when we all met up at the tower of fate!
If he was just an observer in the boss rush incident, he would have seen shovel knight using all those useless relics, and incorporated them in his story to seem even cooler, explaining how Shovel Knight somehow had the Horn during their fight even though he wouldn't have gotten that yet.
@Samuel Anderson that does make a lot of sense, I hadn't even considered it since Mona was the goal of his campaign. I can see him hanging out in the town bar and telling his tale to any who would listen.
Well there is new game +
@@karlsargant3985but thats just straight up non-canonical
For the Boss Rush, I would like to think that it was actually a "Battle Royale", Everyone against everyone, but this explanation seems to be the more acurrate one...
This is also a possible interpretation that I find to be valid. Check other comments too, we talked about it
This is even sorta implied by the game itself, Propellor Knight specifically says "a Battle Royale then?"
@@bmombaerts yep!
@@bmombaerts Exactly
Or more like... a showdown?
yeah, personal headcannon is 'unreliable narrator' there. It's kinda true, but he did make a few fibs, namely about the fights with Shovel Knight.
“And then I defeated all the order of no quarter, at once!” -Plague Knight, probably
late reply but "unreliable narrator" isn't just headcanon, it's what YCG intended. I didn't make that up for this video, my source was actual tweets from YCG that I couldn't find when making this video. I've since found them and updated the description. Here they are:
twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st...
twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st...
twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st...
twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st...
twitter.com/YachtClubGames/st...
Neat
@@pikapete2719 all of those have been deleted
@@moonlightostrich3690 wtf you're right omg
Plague of Shadows Endgame Spoiler:
It could also be that Plague of Shadows is Plague Knight telling Mona how he found everyone's essense/how they fell in love together, seen at the end of the story. After all, he does try to impress her alot(And tries to not really dance near her)
T3alZ3r0 & Mag3nta F1v3 i like this better too, plague knight doesn't feel the type to lie unless Mona is involved. I do prefer the idea that plague knight fought the order though because its funnier that shovel knight arrives to see all his enemies fighting each other
@@lafayettemclaren5195 the other campaigns show that none of them are truly evil, more just selfish, and they quabble and fight a LOT, so it's not unreasonable to believe that they legitimately were just having a battle royale and shovel/plague tunnel visioned on their fights while telling the story
@@pikapete2719 yesss- btw I love King Of Cards!! What's your opinion on it??
@@iamsargentbucky9368 I think it's very good overall, I want to make a massive video discussing my thoughts on every campaign now that they're all out
@@pikapete2719 I consider Treasure Knight to be a Pirate Captain so he could be kind of evil but yes, the rest of the order are merely adventures of sorts, even King Knight.
Also if Plague Knight thought the Plague of Shadows and then the Corrupt Essence at the moment of Shovel Knight's final bosses that could make the whole story work out in the end.
Another possible explanation for the boss rush is that Shovel Knight just dreamt the entire thing up while he was unconcious, and that plague knight actually defeated the order.
True, another thing is since they’re told by two different people some things may be slightly different, like how minor gameplay differences, etc etc (I mostly forgot what examples I was gonna use) but if two people told the same or similar stories based on how they felt it would be different
man just got conked out and imagined the fight up until plague knight
I think plague waits for Shovel to beat the knights before swooping in and stealing the essences when he leaves.
the theory is that, plague knight is the one who fought the order at the tower, and the whole fight from shovel knights story was his dream, as hes asleep during the fight.
that's a possibile, albeit mediocre interpretation imo
yeah but its funny
@@gren4586 fax
No, it was clearly Bass who defeated all of them so hard that they don't even know what really happened
1:10
What the-
Pikapete: Why are you surprised? I'm playing the leaked Shovel Knight: Propeller of Mystery!
Seriously, what the hell was that? Some kind of glitch?
Mariano Dominguez nah he was cheating so he could get some footage
ngl Propeller of Mystery sounds like a cool title
What about Shovel Knight: Flower of Flight? Because of the rose thing in King of Cards?
I need Shovel of hope xl and shovel of hope dark theme for polar and black knight
Thinking of shovel knight's fight with plague knight, I can just imagine that plague was like: "Oh yeah man it was really hard to beat shovel knight, like he pulled out a war horn, (which plague knew about from the final table) and a bunch of other stuff! It was really challenging, but in the end I won. You may have found me fainted on the ground, but that's only because I was really tired after defeating shovel knight!"
can we also just talk about How Reize Completely confused the Shovel knight and Plague knights by their actions?. how he peiceved Shovel knight as a bad guy and Plague knight looking like someone you could trust.
One could argue that shovel knight has to deal with black knight causing trouble and looking very similar to him but plague knight is literally a baddie and constantly being ambushed by the police
Alternate explanation for the Shovel Knight fights: he’s using New Game +.
It can be that new game+ is Canon to the Story.
@@karlsargant3985 I mean it could be but we see no story differences, only gameplay ones.
NG+ only exists in the context of gameplay and not story so I avoided saying that in the video but yeah it could be this too
he's using amiibo lmao
This video released a year and a half ago, yet most of the comments are from the last 2 days. UA-cam's algorithm is a mystery, and yes, I too came here because this suddenly kept popping up in my recommendations.
Oh yeah, the video itself, it's good. I like that you kept it simple and only adressed the parts people were likely to question. And it did help keep things in order. I was wondering how people interpreted the way these stories play out with each other.
The algorithm is quite crazy, but coincidentally it gave me the views now while I had just started to get back into making videos. Got some more in the works so stay tuned!
I know this is an older video, but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who sees it this way. Really annoyed me when Plague of Shadows was new and everyone was saying it didn't fit canonically.
Also, you have crazy speedrunning skills!
I guess this could be explained with the story telling logic, but in the shovel knight campaign after the boss rush if you choose to save them plauge knight is there, but in plauge of shadows he bomb bursts away
If Shovel Of Hope is a more trusty retelling of the story, saying “and then I helped everyone to get up from there” implies that he ALSO did it to Plague Knight, meanwhile Plague Knight could say in his retelling “and then I got out of there to meet the Enchantress before that blue digger got first” which could explain why in PoS Shovel Knight is kind of a dick leaving the Order to hang around
Because PK wasn’t there anymore
yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
YES!!
Yas
Here I am thinking I’m really good at the plague knight campaign because I’ve done most of his difficulty runs and collected everything but here you are just blazing past everything with spikes just brushing your hood.
Nobody:
This dude: it is simple
It's really convenient that Plague of Shadows happens at basically the SAME TIME as Shovel of Hope, so Plague Knight can arrive first where it counts and last in other places.
Except Shovel Knight never gets ahead of Plague Knight you liar. 😒
@@floatingf8783 Not true. He arrived at the Explodatorium before Plague Knight. When Plague Knight arrives, his minion warns him that there's an intruder about.
Plague Knight does beat him to the boss chamber, though. lol
@@DJFlare84 plague beating shovel to the boss chamber makes sense: the explodatorium is his domain, he knows the place better than anyone else does.
Thank you for clearing up all of the inconcistancys in plague of shadows, this will now give me a better understanding of the lore of shovel knight.
Short answer: yes.
Something i really don't like is that we cannot use Plague Knight's boss outfit. His short/cute sprite is just ridiculous compared to the taller, scary and awesome boss sprite ): when we fight Shovel Knight in Explodatorium we should be able to use the other outfit. Anyway, that's really disapointing to me, because doesn't feel the same.
My deeper analysis behind this based on the fight vs plague of shadows boss in this campaign, based on the perspective explanation, is that plague perceives himself as small and weak and that's why he looks smaller and wesker in his campaign, but in other campaigns he's bigger and scarier because that's how others perceive him. The plague of shadows and the corrupted essence battles represent an internal struggle imo and do not actually physically happen because that wouldn't make sense, so it makes sense that plague would fight that version of himself in that context
I agree though that ideally plague would use his boss sprite, but thaf would require a whole new game to be made rather than an alternate campaign since plague wouldn't be able to fit in SK's levels without even more modification than they already have
@@pikapete2719 That's a very good theory (:
you can find his *scary* mask in his room
@@truji2582 fax, forgot about that
Basically the only parts that are my head canon's is plague knight coming first through the levels he lost to shovel knight but grabs his essences while sleeping, and yada yada plague knight being beaten last and destorying the tower with the potion at the same time
From my personal headcanon
I feel like shovel knight wouldn't be perfectly fine for one of his main places of business to be taken over to him is a psychotic potion brewing maniac
If you're referring to the armor outpost, maybe shovel knight will liberate the armor outpost from plague knight in a sequel game... Or maybe plague knight has renounced mischief all together by then as implied by the ending of PoS
One thing i'm wondering is, how does Plague Knight get the Bards sheets and give them to Percy to throw away if Shovel Knight also finds them and gives them to the Bard?
this can't be explained at all it's just gameplay
Either gameplay or extra copies.
Maybe canonically plague knight didn't collect them?
I've got a question. If Plague Knight goes through all these stages just before Shovel Knight does, then what's the deal with the final Black Knight battle? If Plague Knight fights him first, then how is he already powered up by the Enchantress, when we already know he gets those powers right before Shovel Knight's battle? I guess Plague Knight could be lying about that as well, but how would he know what the upgraded battle with Black Knight could have been like if he charged into the Tower before it happened?
That's the one time shovel does the level first; note the dialogue and the absence of chester, the previous evidence for their order of level traversal. I'm surprised i didn't mention this in the video when i made it
As for Shovel Knight having the horn early, since that was brought up at the start but not explained later, I always interpreted that as meaning Plauge of Shadows takes place during Shovel Knight's New Game Plus. Whether or not a New Game Plus is even canon in the first place though could easily be up to debate, ahaha
i did explain it tho lol
@@pikapete2719 where in the video did you explain it? I must've missed it
The shovel knight vs plague knight fight being unreliable honestly works fine.
Same thing happened in Hotline Miami when Jacket fought Biker.
You know what dude? This was a really good video. Even disregarding the less than steller Microphone, the points you make all make sense. I myself have always seen it as Plague Knight just pretending he beat Shovelknight which is why he makes him out to be a bit of a jerk.
At first I’ve been wanting a shovel knight sequel
Then I release there are four shovel knight games and two combing on the way plus a board game
Why am I complaining
Is it canon: maybe
Is it god dam adorable: YES, DEFINITELY!
Ah thank you youtube for recommanding this random video I didn't ask for.
But seriously tho, nice theory, ya really explained it well.
U my friend earned a subscriber
The algorithm works in strange ways, no one cared about this video until like 2 days ago, and then it blew up!
I was always thinking that Plague Knight just tricked Shove Knight about his win over Plague Knight.
Lmao new headcanon, plague knight just gaslit shovel knight into thinking he won
@@pikapete2719 I dont remember how their fight actually ended. I remember you defeat Shovel Knight and then he suddenly defeats you. But I like to imagine that Plague Knight just tricked Shovel Knight and pretended to be defeated while stealing his essence. I mean he is like mad scientist and he looks like that type of character that plays villian role for a hero but actually has his own plans on situation.
Well now I’m happy about it’s canonical existence cus that means plague knight ends up with Mona anyway so it’s a win/win.
their relationship is hinted at in other campaigns too!
That only leaves one question and I'm not sure if someone has already given an answer but that's besides the point.
How did plague knight get get shovel knights essence
He sneaks into his campsite and steals from it while he was sleeping, it's a cutscene!
Ah thank you
@@llewellynhehir6718 So essentially, the boss fight going Plague Knight's way up until the sneak attack after seemingly beating Shovel Knight is his version of how it happened, while the campsite scene could very well be reality.
I think that the boss rush in Shovel Knight's perspective is more of a dream, because in PoS, we can see him sleeping before having a boom to pick with Plague Knight.
If that was the case then why would the boss rush(in shovel Knight’s view) go in a random order?
@@loganandreassen2821 Well, the boss rush also goes in a random order in PoS.
The only canon order doesn't need very much of things, except that it end up with Plague Knight, so it would be at the bottom of the line.
I always thought that both were actually stories being told. That's why in shovel knights story plague knights mask seems longer.
i personally see the mask difference as how plague sees himself vs. how others see him- he's a lot scarier to the outsiders
@@pikapete2719 yeah I always imagined Shovel Knight telling his story and getting to plague knights battle and being like "He was wearing a horrible bird mask the size of my arm!"
Thanks for clearing this up for me
This whole story was so confusing
This channel is too much underrated.
4:33 how did you get the body swap in plague of shadows
I also wanna know
what does the tropple king do?
yeah I know he gives you the armors but what does that have to do with bodyswap mode
u mean cypher coins? I haven't but I know you get pandemonium cloack. does that something to do with it?
really really late reply, but I was using a program called STrainer to teleport around levels and change my character in the game to capture footage more easily. The reason for the Body Swap is because this file I recorded on was originally a Shovel of Hope file... All the footage was recorded on the same file, if I remember correctly (but I could be wrong, I made this a long time ago)
EXTRA THEORY : when shovel knight drops into the boss rush and gets knocked out. He dreams that he didn’t get knocked out and dreams that he is fighting all the order in the boss rush. Then before he could fight plague knight in the dream he wakes up and fights the actual plague knight. Simple!
Plague of Shadows is a video game, not a cannon.
your mom is a cannon
@@pikapete2719 Cannons don't have ovaries, so they cannot have babies.
Lmao
Thats what the media wants you to think.
@@Magnus_Deus not with that attitude
This video is well made
Ill sub
Ty :)
Crazy analysis effort bro
thanks :)
The way I had interperted the boss rush is that plague knight did most of the fighting and that shovel knight had hurt his head when he fell which can be seen by him looking confused while sitting at the table. So that when you are playing as shovel knight you see things from his perspective in which he had a hallucination/dream he fought the knights instead of plague knight however this doesn't explain how shovel knight had the horn in the explodatorium fight so YCG's explanation makes more sense.
5:10 cool vid but also this little clip here gives me the worst anxiety
I really like the way that the games are two parallel stories, happening just moments apart from each other. Makes Plague of Shadows feel like an alternate character mode without making it entirely non cannon.
Shovel Knight does win both fights in both games, although the details of the battle itself seem to be a bit different mainly for gameplay purposes. Guess they thought a scripted loss would be anticlimactic, so they wait until after the fight to make you "lose".
The fact there's no direct sequel in terms of the timeline (and it's never brought up in Pocket Dungeon or Dig) is also interesting, as it leaves it to the player to decide whether it really was Plague Knight or Shovel Knight who had the upper hand in those fights
Honestly I think if they’d made a campaign set after the main games that would have been cool.
If they ever return to the original SK for whatever reason to make another campaign, I think doing something for treasure or polar knight could be cool. Polar seemingly has the most unknown backstory elements that are hinted at across the game, while treasure knight would just be a cool character to play imo. A campaign about hunting across a continent for bounties would be a nice diversion from the other campaigns, almost like the opposite of how SoT’s levels were given to the player (more open-ended access to levels and more open levels themselves would work with the bounty hunter theme, and having to fight your bounty in whatever area you found them could be super interesting)
Woah, you have _really_ fast gameplay.
What loadout did you use?
I usually just go for default, everything else is usually a downgrade or sidegrade except for cluster powder, impact fuse, and spin burst, but i prefer default over that loadout anyways personally
@@pikapete2719 imagine not using sparkler and impact
@@TheKeitaNobodyAskedFor imagine wasting time buying them when the default is faster lol
...well you got a point haha
@@TheKeitaNobodyAskedFor :p
Another interpretation is just that Shovel Knight got knocked down, but not completely defeated, and he didn’t know what Plaque Knight was doing so didn’t have it in his story, and in the boss rush, Shovel Knight was partially unconscious, and imagined that he fought all the bosses, then actually fought Plague Knight. If you don’t die in the boss rush as Shovel Knight, you fight Plague Knight last by default.
False, the order in the boss rush is random with the exception of polar knight always being in the first three (so that you don't die to instadeath spikes late into the boss rush)
Pikapete Whoops, I didn’t realize that the order was random, thanks for clearing that up
@@pikapete2719 i didn't realize the order wasn't random, glad they did that with polar knight
@@penguindragon0155 i completely forgot about this fun fact since it's a 4 year old comment so this is news to me now too LOL
idk in king of cards it says king knight was recruited by the enchantress but in spectre of torment it says spectre knight recruited him
Fight king knight in SoT again but this time actually pay attention to the dialogue
Pikapete oh why was I dumb enough to skip all the dialogue
There's no goddamn way Plague Knight was lying about beating up the other 7 knights of the Order of No Quarter one after the other. They'd rightfully be pissed he was stealing their essences, King Knight and Specter Knight specifically would want to gut him like a chicken!
agreed, which is why many others including I subscribe to the "battle royale" theory. you can find the discussion about that in the comments of this video
@Pikapete What if Shovel Knight was lying about the battle royal? I don't think the Enchantress would want to loose any members of the order. So instead of letting the knights kill the betrayer, she'd probably tell them to remind where his place is. This way attacking one after another makes more sense, since they are having fun getting revenge on PK but are not trying to actually kill him.
Yes, it is, only because I need Plague X Mona to be canon.
even if PoS isn't canon, PlagueMona is canon since hints of it appear in the other campaigns
ok now i want to play again this game.
Specter and shovel knight are probably the 2 most reliable narrators
But the question is, did Shovel Knight really leave them to hang?
actually an excellent question. obviously plague would lie and say he did, even if he did save them
im pretty sure even yacht has said it is literally the semi-prequel to shovel knight(semi bc it happens either 3 minutes before or at the same time as shovel knight)
3:51 BOI.
Lmaoo
plague knight is best knight
agree
Fact here: phase locket is the locket from specter of torment
Uhhh... specter of torment is actually canon, it's a prequel. They pointed that in the trailer.
at no point did i ever say specter of torment isn't canon, of course i know it's canon lmao what
@@pikapete2719 Yeah, but how you phrased it made me confused
@@B11-n8v how i phrased what?
@@pikapete2719 like how you were staying stuff like, it doesnt matter if Specter Knights campaign is canon or not.
@@B11-n8v it doesn't matter because it doesn't cause any timeline issues, confusion, or contradictions so it can just stay in its own perfect little unquestionably canon spot in the timeline, same with koc
Can you make a video on how shovel knight is actually a fish man
super late reply but i like this idea, i'll make a vid about it eventually
Well if it's not there's the fact that king of cards isn't canon because he that one guy drops his key and now he can't get in a door because of that and that would mean specter of torment is not cannon.
this doesnt explain how black knight fought shovel knight and plague knight at the same time. and also managed to bring mona to plague knight to convince him she loves him. while also saving shovel knight from the tower explosion
Plague Knight's story is the only canon that matters. The rest just have fun gameplay.
Ya know i like to believe its a alternate timeline
Identical but diferent
This is the best thing I’ve watched in a while
For me the biggest inconsistency is how King Knight is recruited, as KoC and SoT contradict each other. In SoT Specter Knight recruits King Knight after fighting him, however in KoC King Knight joins the order of no quarter at the end because of the Enchantress' offer.
Specter Knight does not recruit King Knight in SoT. If you pay closer attention to the pre-fight dialogue, it's made clear that King Knight is already with the Enchantress. He's just slacking off and she sends Specter Knight to put him back in his place
@@pikapete2719 Cool, I didn't notice that.
Time is a Flat Circle. Every Perception is a Unique Timeline with a character living their "adventure". The inconsistencies between the stories is merely the alterations of Time-Lines based on who our "Hero" is. Some things are inevitable, like Shovel Knights "canon" victory over PK, but seeing as PK is only after essence, not victory, he doesn't have to win for his "continuity" to continue. "Unreliable Narrator" only applies if it is announced that this is a retelling. But it isn't. Its PK's story of what HE was after: being someone Mona would want.
it is a retelling, check the tweets in the description
Personally, I like to belive that shovel knight DID pass out for the boss rush, plague knight defeated them all, and shovel knight either didn't remember or was too embarrassed to admit he slept though that many fights
The only part to this that may need more light shed on it is Black Knight. If we are to assume it was Plague Knight's Potion that destroyed the tower, that would mean he would have had to bring Mona to the tower after Shovel Knight and Shield Knight defeated the Enchantress.
But...wasn't he busy carrying Shovel Knight back? We can clearly see that the tower blows up before Black Knight arrives at the campsite so how did he manage to bring Mona?
Another thing is Shield Knight; If she was holding off the Enchantress up until the Enchantress died, why didn't we see her when Plague Knight left the tower?
If I’m reading your comment right, he could have dropped off mona at the tower, then ran off to help shovel and shield knight (because he leaves mona and plague before they destroy the tower, possibly long before if he brings mona pre-PoS fight, can’t remember the exact order of things).
That or again, unreliable narration (although how that works with mona being there is beyond me)
I choose to interpret the confusing timeline as a reference to classic games.
Fans: Why did plague knight tell it differently tho?
Me: Cuz he’s a fucken gremlin
I'm going to watch this vid later. Before I do, I will leave this comment. I personally feel some aspects of Plague of Shadows are canon.
Minor spoilers ahead...
Mona and Plague Knight having feelings for each other and being partners seems to be hinted at in the other two campaigns, Specter of Torment and King of Cards. (i.e. in the ending credits for Specter of Torment and when you encounter Mona in the second area's Joustus hotspot, as well as speaking to him when he's on the airship, after beat him.) I don't doubt this much is canon. Part of me feels at least some of his journey in Plague of Shadows is canon as again, it's hinted in the finale of Specter of Torment what he's planning for in Plague of Shadows. Not to mention, the link between where Specter Knight actually leaves the Locket to where Shovel Knight finds Chester, who gives him to him for a price is covered by Plague Knight. Not to mention, the fight... From a gameplay perspective, the winner of the fight is whoever, but I do feel Plague Knight could still get Shovel Knight's essence in that one and still be canon. For all we know, he softened up the Enchantress in their fight enough for Shovel Knight to take down. As for how they didn't run in to one another, the fights happened in different locales while the other bosses were at different times.
Now, for a more major spoiler and opinion for something else...
I personally I feel Specter of Torment's King Knight fight is not canon. It's just there for a gameplay's sake. The real origin story for King Knight is in King of Cards. Go play it if you haven't. It's amazing. It just ultimately makes more sense with how he gets his place in Pridemore Keep in the end.
Actually... In their dialogue in SoT, Spectre Knight and King Knight already know each other, with King Knight calling Spectre a "lazy lapdog", and Spectre Knight saying that King Knight needs to get off his high horse and get to work, implying that he was already appointed king of Pridemoore Keep. Of course, he adds to the total of knights recruited but that may just be for gameplay reasons.
Also it's worth noting that in the KoC ending, three knights may have already been recruited to the Order, namely Mole, Tinker, and Polar Knight. The timeline is a bit vague on this, but perhaps Spectre had already met Black Knight and then had worked with the Enchantress in creating the Joustus tournament. After King Knight was first recruited, Spectre had already gotten Mole, Tinker, and Polar in on the Order as well.
Me watching hmm good info also that movement
WTF!?
i thought the acsent thing was because shovel knight dreamed that he fought
Does this mean plague knight had a harder time since he had to fight them before their essence was stolen?
possibly, but we don't really know what essences even are so IDK
The 1 thing I don't get is why shovel knight boss theme is a remix of plague knights theme
"If I had a nickel for every game that had an expansion that has a protagonist mostly associated with green who is part of the enemy team that the main character of the original game fought and is having a similar adventure to them at the same time and is also debated of it is canon or not, i would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice."
Lmao what's the other game?
@@pikapete2719 half life opposing force
Maybe Plague of Shadows really just takes place in ANOTHER save file started by shovel knight after already completing the game once and for the impossible relics in his boss fight, He most likely used one of the cheats
While this is a cool video and all how is body swap mode enabled in PoS champaign though it was exclusive to SoH
So, if Plague of Shadows is canon, that means that Plaguey x Mona is canon too. "shipper intensifies" YES!
yep, it's also hinted at in other games
@@pikapete2719 Specter of Torment. (/ω＼)
short answer: yes
Long answer: yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.
and then theres king knight where the story is the exact same
yeah thankfully that game doesn't interfere with anything!
but mona had a bob haircut in shovel of hope
bruh what does her hair have anything to do with it lmao
in the beginning of PoS she's sitting at her desk like in SoH and she just gets up, her hair doesn't change between games
could reize ad phantom striker fights happen at any time Pikapete
I haven't played the game in a while but I believe it's implied that one of them fights reize before the other if you look at the dialogue but I don't remember which
Shovel Knight has 1hp when you beat him
you drain his health bar but when he gets back up yeah he gains back 1 hp, nice little detail
Great video!
Great video but may I ask where did you find that color for plague at the first 10 seconds of the video?
the games got a ton of different color cheat codes that affect nothing gameplay wise but give you a different skin, many speedrunners use them for funsies
what is this music of all long in the video "Is Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows Canon? " ?
"A Cargo of Fineries". (It's the Specter of Torment remix of the music that plays in Propeller Knight's level)
I disagree with the Boss rush, If you think about It in shovel Knight story plague Knight IS eating with the order peacefully, witch IS Impossible since he STOLE THEIR ESSENCE, só there is only one explanation, the one who fought the order was plague Knight, HOW? simple:
*Imagine you are shovel Knight*
*You fight the order*
*You fall from the celling and get uncouncious*
*The only Seconds you were counsious you saw the order fighting*
*When you FINNALY wake up you attack the last member of the order and leave*
*Years later someone asks you what happened there... You cant say that you dont know, then what would you say?*
What about the Chester in iron whale?
He just moves.
I wouldn't say it better.
I like to think that Shovel Knight realy lose against Plague Knight, becouse technically Shovel Knight didnt beat the Betrayer at the end, which knock him out and Black Knight had to drag his unconcious ass out of there... Plague Knight kinda did by blowing the shit up. So it would be nice to see SK as a guy who didnt beat anything :)
1:10
Excuse me. What. Why is Propeller Knight there
I don't expect a response since this isn't really a new video, but in one of the clips you were fighting Treasure Knight's body swap design in Plague of Shadows, as far as I'm aware you can only do it in Shovel of Hope. How did you do it? Did you just replace the files for Treasure Knight?
I address the specifics in other comments, tl;dr cheating
@@pikapete2719 Wow, didn't expect such a fast response, thanks.
Maybe plauge Knight is trying to say he is a hero because of the fate of the others.
Wait, if PK didn’t beat SK, then how did he get SK’s essence? It only came out after Plague beat Shovel, and SK just stored his essence in a chest after taking it back in physical form.
PK gets Shovel Knight's essence in a cutscene after their fight. He can lose the fight and still steal it at night same as usual
Pikapete but how does the essence come out of Shovel if he didn’t get beaten?
@@thebiolibrary5572 there's no rule that states that's how essences work at all
Wait i've noticed, does shovel knight also lie since plague knight in shove of hope could do some things plague knight in plague of shadows couldn't, like summoning 4 explosive vats or throwing three bombs at the same time?
we all misremember things when recounting tales
Your really good at the game :)