#tsp meta
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Love undertale and deltarune and the stanley parable and the beginner's guide. Love games that have you sit down and think about what you've done. Love games that just want you to feel normal about them. Love games that beg you to stop playing them over and over and over again but still give you new content on successive playthroughs because they know you'll do it anyway. Love games that assert that participating in someone else's creation is more than just an act of love, it can be an act of invasion, of violation. LOVE METAFICTION IN MY VIDEO GAMES!!!!!
#i know by picking apart and overanalyzing these games I am actively going against their wishes but yknow what I love that too#undertale#deltarune#utdr#the stanley parable#tsp#the beginner's guide#the stanley parable ultra deluxe#tspud#meta#tsp meta#tspud meta#undertale meta#deltarune meta
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thing about the stanley parable
the game is determined not to show you another living creature. you never see the narrator’s face. he laughs at you when you see that your wife is a lifeless mannequin. the crowds in the 3 ending are faceless. ‘mariella’ is an unmoving character model in an ending that you can’t interact with. all your friends are inanimate objects that the narrator is determined to personify.
it creates an amazing feeling of loneliness. my goal, when playing this game, became not to find the ‘true’ ending or break the game, but to find someone living, someone real, someone that isnt a bucket that the narrator speaks for to make this world less lonely.
the only time you do see someone else, a moving person, then, is the rare occasion in which you can see someone walking past one of the office windows. and it’s just stanley’s character model, and you don’t get to interact with them. you get to watch them disappear.
this did not quell my loneliness. it gave me UTTER FEAR. what does this mean? are timelines converging? does this represent the endless cycle, the ‘we’ve been here before’ of it all? does the narrator have another stanley? or, more likely, is it something that he, or the game’s creators, threw in to taunt us? you want someone to talk to, here’s a glimpse, and it’ll only give you more questions. there is no comfort, there is no closure. only a glimpse of something. it is unattainable and it is terrifying. stanley is alone. stanley is alone.
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And I love that for them
#the stanley parable#tsp#tspud#superliminal#liminal spaces#Haha funny puzzle game#haha funny meta#Would you like some Existential Dread? You will
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never lets me have any fun. this is exactly why i mess with him all the time, spoilsport… lol
#ney’s comics#ney’s art#tsp narrator#not gonna add all his tags bc it’s not really a tsp thing#just a shitpost#er… might count as#tales aboard the hive#maybe? for the meta element?#anyway *DRAMATIC OVERTURE*#phantom of the opera references are fun#sona art#narry is such a bully gah
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rip abed nadir you would’ve loved the stanley parable
#i just discovered the stanley parable and it’s so so good#the meta commentary the fourth wall breaks the little easter eggs#it’s like it was made for me#i stand by the fact that abed would never shut up about it#he’s just like me fr#community#community nbc#abed nadir#tsp#the stanley parable
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BD: the narrator tries to let go
i have several clock 0ut meta posts in my heart and i have no idea how strong this fandom is in the red string department so i apologize if they're well-trodden ground by now. this one is about my theory/interpretation that in blank decay the narrator led stanley to the exit, and also had no intention of leaving with him.
we see his motive in his guilt over how he has hurt stanley in the past as he examines the wound stanley received by saving his life anyway. that's REMORSE, babey:
also this, because i can't imagine the single word he says here being anything but 'sorry'. stanley turns away from him after he says it, a clear indication that this apology wasn't enough (because of COURSE it wasn't):
the narrator needs to actually do something to make things right. and so he takes him to the exit. i think the narrator already knew about it; the trek didn't seem to take a long time (stanley's wound didn't heal) or involve any searching. they walk in a straight line right to it.
stanley can't be the one who knew about the exit, though, because 1. he definitely would have ditched the narrator if he'd found it on his own prior to their little trauma bonding moment, and 2. his excited pointing here:
note that the narrator responds to stanley's exuberance with a lukewarm half-shrug. he hangs back when stanley runs to try the door--a probable indicator he has no intention to go through it--at which point we see this expression:
not the face of a man who's about to escape a dangerous wasteland with his friend(?) there. see also the look on his face on the walk there:
it's anyone's guess whether the narrator was unwilling to leave or believed that it wasn't possible for him to do so (let alone whether he's correct). maybe it wasn't possible for stanley to leave either at this point, given that the exit was stuck when he tried it. i figure some game logic probably required a certain condition be met which they hadn't done yet, but that's just speculation.
it's more likely that the narrator expected stanley to leave without him given his little sad faces :( either way, i think he very much intended to remain in the wasteland indefinitely in the absence of the watch. hell, he was looking for new glasses! that's the behavior of a man who is resigned to making the best of things. he didn't have a backpack like stanley, so maybe he'd even set up somewhere to live nearby--though perhaps he just didn't need survival supplies, being an android.
P.S.: i wanted to touch on the narrator's awareness of the gears and their connection to the watch. much like stanley, i think he would have reset without a second thought before their trauma bonding moment--the problem being, that's when he realized rebuilding the watch was an option. note the look of sudden recognition on his face before he shoves his hand into the gearling's screen here:
i don't think he knew he could just explode it, but upon seeing the gear as it took aim, he definitely realized something that prompted his next action. and, of course, he thought to slip the gear into his pocket.
sucks when you find the means to do something you've been desperately wanting to do moments after you stop wanting it, huh?
EDIT: meta post about the red entity is [here], and another post about various little details i noticed is [here]!
#clock 0ut#meta#clock 0ut meta#sage speaks#sage original post#the stanley parable#tagged for my own organization purposes#sorry tsp tag goers who aren't interested in c0#greatest hits
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I get WHY comparisons happen because it helps boost the game and previous media exists, but I’m getting sick already of people going “STP is the dark souls of DDLC” like WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN STOP IT
#chat#like I’ve compared it to TSP but that’s cause it defined the genre of meta narratives#STP is such an interesting and unique game like cmon let it stand on its own feet#talk about the actual game elements#slay the princess#STP
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The Logic of the Stanley Parable's Endings (Base Version)
Endings are created due to a combination of the 5 elements detailed in the first slide: the Player's hand, The Narrator's lovely character, the vague concept of a Narrative pushing everything in a logical direction, Stanley's 1st Person POV, and the Setting surrounding everything.
The game's internal logic changes on a whim, and does not have a lot of power by itself. In one ending the Narrator is surprised to see the Player (Credits), in another he always knew about us (Tape Recorder), and in others he can't even acknowledge us (Zen Ending). There's a similar lack of cohesion with Stanley and the Setting, as they change based on the ending.
The Story is an interesting element, as it's often referred to by the Narrator as the thing keeping the whole world together. It's hard to tell if this is always the case though.
Endings after taking the Left Door seem to maintain this reverence towards the Story - either by being extravagant narratives (Stanley's Mind, Conference, Countdown, Freedom) or by showing characters maintain to the Narrative while the Player looks from the outside (Escape Pod, Museum).
Endings in the Right Door seem to maintain more 4th wall breaking elements by acknowledging player behaviors (Tape Recorder, Artist, Button Pusher, Credits).
The Confusion Ending seems to result from Player Awareness that the Narrator's story doesn't exist, but making the sudden decision to search for it. Thus, the Narrator reflects this dilemma.
The Zen Ending seems to result from a rejection of the Story and the 4th Wall elements of the Player. The Narrator gives up the Story to be at peace with Stanley, and he doesn't seem able acknowledge that the only way for Players to proceed is to throw Stanley off the stairs. Stanley seems to be a part of him he wishes would stay safe.
Stanley's mind ending is just justifying the rest of the world through Stanley's POV.
Museum Ending is arguably the Setting enforcing a choice: It gives the Player the ability to explore it. If we Players show interest in seeing what it has to offer, we later get a full breakdown on how the world of the Stanley Parable was created.
Freedom Ending is supposed to be satisfying all elements of the story except the Player, as the Narrative it enforces is filled with plot holes and bad logic.
The Artist Ending can only be accessed by paying attention to the Setting, and it follows a deconstruction of what the videogame Setting is even supposed to be.
Both the Button Pusher ending and the Credits ending can only be accessed by following along the cargo elevator, without finding an alternate choice out, while going along with the Narrator, who spins an overly flattering tale about what a nice wife YOU have, a wife STANLEY has. If you pick up the phone to talk to said wife, the Narrator calls you out for being a short-sighted fool, and you metaphorically become Stanley, a short-sighted button pusher.
If you manage to unplug the phone the game acknowledges you as a human who can make decisions, but then the game tries to railroad you anyways, as it can't have that sort of dangerous decision making.
The Window Endings are a dialogue on the nature of choice between the Player and Narrator, with everything else taking a backseat. The Broom Closet is a lighter version of the Window Endings.
Anyways the endings of the Stanley Parable are a reflection of what choices you make, and what you choose to prioritize in the narrative.
#the stanley parable#tsp#the stanley parable meta#the stanley parable analysis#meta#soilai's labyrinth#bright colors#colorful#bright contrasting colors
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You know what actually I’m going back to my original theory that you’re not actually playing Stanley in TSPUD once you initiate the skip button, up until the epilogue occurs
You are instead just a figment of the narrator’s mind as he tries to find ways to pass the time.
Stanley is frozen for billions of years, the narrator desperately tries to keep himself entertained, he prepares the entire sequel concept and then he imagines Stanley playing it. He imagines what Stanley would do and how he would respond.
And eventually he gets to a point where he accepts that Stanley was a fiction he made up to keep himself company, because the real Stanley has been gone so long that the narrator really HAS started to doubt his memory.
So then he leaves. He straight up has left. And THAT is when Stanley gets to the memory zone again. Absolutely no context for this bucket that comforts him, these buttons that say a different persons—oh.
No context for these figurines or why the number already claims he’s collected a bunch. Stanley really is seeing things all out of order.
#tsp#the sparrow parable#if I’m honest I’m never going to write this into any of my fics (hypoTHETICALLY it could work for the 432 meta fic but meh)#but goddamn. it makes the skip hurt a little bit less. or at least on a different way#he’s not dead he’s just abandoned us like we abandoned him#and then we drag him back in like we always do
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absolutely no one:
me: see the thing about stannarrator is that the narrator is sometimes grandly all powerful but often pretty pathetic, and sometimes he's both at once, and sometimes he's all powerful in spite of stanley or pathetic in spite of himself or vice versa. the only thing he can't reinvent over and over is stanley's sheer persistence; he can only direct that stubbornness down paths, not really stem the tide.
no one, again:
me: and yeah, that speaks to a lot of themes about choice and the nature of agency and story, but as i am gay i'm taking it a step further here...like what if the fundamentally indomitable nature of stanley's spirit was also just...love? radical love, the kind that heeds neither extenuating circumstances nor logic, over and over again, and neither of them (initially) wants it or can explain it. but it's there no matter how the narrator OR stanley tries to ignore/destroy/diminish it. no matter what the narrator tries to write for stanley there's love underneath, and the problem is that there's nowhere for it to go. this isn't a fucking love story.
no one, still:
me, shaking: BUT IT HAS TO GO SOMEWHERE. SO STANLEY CAN LOVE THE UNCERTAIN MEMORY OF HIS COWORKERS, MAYBE, OR HIS CHOICES, OR HIS BUCKET, OR ALL OF THE ABOVE. BUT ONLY BY LOVING THE NARRATOR AND WHAT THEY CREATE TOGETHER CAN HE REALLY FIND SOLACE. AND IN THAT WAY HE CREATES AGENCY FOR HIMSELF AND BECOMES (PARADOXICALLY) POWERFUL.
one (1) brave soul: uhh. isn't this the game about...a guy going through an empty office?
me, suddenly wearing sunglasses: if by 'an empty office' you mean 'an INCREDIBLE divorce'...then yeah!
#alexa play old college try#don't misunderstand me here#when i say love i don't mean that if he and the narrator hugged it would all be fine#i mean that to get to the point of accepting it they have to destroy each other and their world a thousand times in a thousand ways first#and even after that stuff's not FINE. just clearer.#the stanley parable#tsp#meta#trick talks tag#today is useless autistic Themes and Parallels text post day it seems.
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whenever i see a post about The Narrative i need to like flow chart it using the stanley parable as my starting-off point
#i dont know how to explain this#i know meta narratives abt the nature of stories and stuff#shit like dhmis and tsp and ddlc#those r my 3 starting off points#like hmmmmm this is like if the stanley parable did xyz
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truly the world's most tragic love triangle
#the stanley parable#tsp narrator#tspud#tspud narrator#tspud bucket#tspud stanley#tsp fanart#stanley parable#the narrator#tsp stanley#unpopular opinion but#i thought the tspud gags weren't...great#not the best writing imo#which may have been the point idk#too many meta jokes
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🚼
Okay here you go, let's see for Stanley and Doomy. x3
@the-haunted-office
send me a 🚼 and a ship I’ll use a doll-maker to design what I think a child between our two muses would look like
Hazel
Hazel is a wild child much like her mother and father, she is a very chipper punk who knows how to run her mouth. Growing up with a mother who could take her anywhere in the multiverse and a father with a love for nature and urban exploration has definitely led Hazel to be one to explore across the multiverse looking for cool and interesting things.
Due to the odd situation surrounding her birth, alongside the odd situations of her mother and father she has the ability to see souls and spirits, and is capable of forming a bound with a player like Stanley is but has avoided that entirely given uh... How much of a issue it was for her father.
As for intrests I can see her being into street racing and otherwise driving, alongside joining in with helping her mother with crimes for fun, in her spare time she would also probably enjoy investigating supernatural mysteries with her aunts and uncle.
#Sometimes The Only Way Out Is As A Carcass; Stanley & Doomsday ☆The-Haunted-Office☆#The-Haunted-Office#☆ship kid☆#Stanley ☆hc & meta☆#She is named after the protag of watership down as I remember The Black Rabbit from it is a strong inpso for Doomsday#And it seems like at least one of the days (thisday) names things after characters they enjoy#And I have done that sort of thing with all my tsp muses#Plus Stanley would like the nature bame#*name
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I began wondering why the Stanley parable always feels incomplete and imperfect, ideal for fandom to elaborate on it.
The whole point of the Stanley parable is that you cannot get closure. There is no satisfying end. It tricks you into playing forever and it’s so wonderfully insidious /pos. Like the whole point of divorce is the lack of closure I think. There is no end, and the desperate search for one causes the game to turn forever. The only end you can get is an intentionally incomplete feeling. You could go back and play Minecraft a little more, and keep giving yourself new goals for eternity. But that stagnace in location and restriction of ideas based on a single story is an intellectual death. I get it now, we keep the wheel turning.
The Curator and Mariella are the happiest beings there because they have little involvement with the parable, but even The Curator fixates on the relationship between Stanley and The Narrator, and Mariella just stands there, unaware of the correlations between her and Stanley. The absence of satisfaction is an important requirement for a story to bring up interest, and I’ve just realized that as I’ve typed out this sentence.
The Stanley Parable stops playing you when you forget it for the last time. The Stanley Parable is about the lack of true finality in video games, and how it’s impossible to make a perfect story if you can simply edit it a little more, forever. The Stanley Parable
#the Stanley parable#tsp#stanley#the narrator#the curator#Mariella#original#text#meta#the curator seems to be above it but she is not immune to the parable#I gotta make a bucket paragraph now
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blue lies: whomst the fuck is red
here's the Big theory: blue lies introduces a new, red-coded entity to the world of clock 0ut. this one owes a lot to @quotesandmiracles , @reflingthefox , and most of all to @featheredbirblet , whom i didn't speak to directly at all but whose insights pretty much form the backbone here.
this first observation is all i need to conclusively prove the existence of the red entity imo. like, putting aside all the rest, this here is enough. here's the camera when the narrator is monitoring stanley from the control room, displaying his signature yellow:
and here it is in blue lies, when the narrator is decidedly not monitoring from the control room:
like. when the narrator is monitoring things, the camera is lit up yellow. now he's not monitoring things and the camera is lit up red. and the camera is moving, so somebody's in control of it. somebody represented by red. QED.
i do have more though. the whole video is structured around film--which, of course, is the medium a camera uses. film is the force that attacks stanley in blue lies in the absence of the office, which doesn't take an active role like in yellow zone, only collapsing.
the film is what apparently captures(???) and attacks(?????) the narrator:
but less obvious is the fact that just before this, the force that rushes to attack him is red:
which tells me the red entity and the film are the same, or at least working together. the film is also what manifests stanley as he appears at the end of blank decay (note his clothes, his longer hair, and his wound)--but with red eyes.
of course, this raises the question of who or what the red entity is. i like @featheredbirblet 's theory that their appearance as BD!stanley may indicate the narrator's unconventional reset at the end of BD, or perhaps the broken-game status of BD in and of itself, led to a corrupted save. film is, after all, just another way of saving and recording data. maybe this is an improper save of BD!stanley "haunting" the files.
my first instinct is that the red entity is the timekeeper, just because it's one of the other entities within the stanley parable and the only one we see use power independent of and equal to the narrator. it could also be the curator, who after all keeps records of the game, but she's more passive. i have no evidence for either, they just seem logical for a new entity coming into play in a story inspired by TSP.
P.S.: note how the title of each video refers to the color associated with the person in possession of the clock at the time. the narrator has it in yellow zone; it doesn't exist at all in blank decay; and stanley has it in blue lies. i very much anticipate a red video in the future.
i have one more post in me of bits and bobs, observations and details i have yet to fit into a coherent point. if you missed the previous one, you can find it [here]. EDIT: bits and bobs post is [here]!
#clock 0ut#clock 0ut meta#c0 meta#sage speaks#the stanley parable#once more i apologize to tsp tag goers#forgive me my organizational trespasses#meta#sage original post
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What’s this? A Stanley Parable fanfiction? Will wonders never cease.
Get ready for some very silly meta, even sillier hi-jinks, and a sincere attempt by me to write something good. Also, very improper use of tags by the Narrator. Poor Stanley.
#the stanley parable#tsp fanfic#the stanley parable fanfic#my fic#this fic is so meta but i swear to god it's got a nice story hidden underneath the irony#im having a lot of fun with it#the stanley parable ultra deluxe#tspud
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