#narrator tsp
I have seen only a few videos and my friend’s ramblings about The Stanley Parable but I’ve decided that whenever the Narrator starts rambling Stanley is just sitting there listening intently like
C’est la Chanson sur La Mémory Zone having a verse that says “Don’t make me choose my love” is so interesting to me because what I found most striking upon playing the ultra deluxe content was that it’s (for the most part) pretty straightforward and devoid of choices. Which were like, the entire gimmick of tsp.
I’ve taken it to symbolize the character development between stanley and the narrator between each game. Unless you’re doing bucket stuff or falling in the mostly infinite hole, you aren’t fighting with the narrator at all. Stanley and The Narrator both agree to put aside their differences, both in order to bask in the good ol’ days together, and because they know they don’t have a choice (ha) otherwise. It’s been 9 years since the release of The Stanley Parable for the PC, after all, and both characters are still present and accounted for. There is no escape, the end is never the end, so might as well enjoy what you have instead of trying to tear each other’s throats out.
The skip button is the most notable exception to this, but even that, in a similar way to the og apartment ending, is not at all a choice on your behalf. Yes, you can stand around and let the dialogue loop, but you’re going to have to press it eventually if you want to progress. And the narrator programmed this into the game, part of me thinks he knowsthis.
Or maybe he doesn’t? Maybe he doesn’t remember the lesson of the apartment ending. The confusion ending reveals he’s liable to forget quite often. Maybe, even, that’s why he needs the memory zone. I can’t pretend to know.
The original stanley parable was about the illusion of choice. TSPUD doesn’t feel the need to keep the curtains up any longer. The choices weren’t real anyway, why try to hide it? You don’t get a choice to change the game’s past, and you are not the person in charge of changing the game’s future. The Narrator barely even is. If you’re not in charge, and the narrator’s not in charge, who’s flying the plane?
Alternatively: Stanley, who obeys the whim of The Narrator, is a representation of false free will; feeling like you have a choice even though you are not the authority. The Narrator, who obeys the whim of The Audience, is a representation of obligation; feeling like you have no choice even though you are the authority.
