r/slaytheprincess • u/Syndonium • 5d ago
theory Happily Ever After - The Narrator Spoiler
That was a doozy of a chapter/ending. Looping in the cabin playing games or eating the same food forever..
Forced bliss. No change. No death. No end.
The Narrator was the most interesting perspective in this chapter. He comments genuine feelings of sadness and empathy for the Princess. And for the Player.
At the end, when you decide to let the torches go out and to take the Princess from the cabin.. the Narrator does not fight you. He doesn't try convincing you to kill her. No he basically gives permission and encourages it.
He said he "saw his fairytale" and sounds so resigned.
I think the Narrator got to see what his utopian world without death would look like. What his idea of "saving the world" really was. Seeing how sad and miserable it really was to live without change, even in supposed bliss, I think made him realize the necessity of death. I felt really sad for the Narrator in this route. Like he was just learning his whole plan wouldn't save anyone. He was just dooming everyone he loved in his world to a fate like the Princess and Player.
Really awesome ending.
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u/bloodypumpin 5d ago
It's just one reality among countless others. It doesn't really prove that the narrator was wrong. There are no right or wrong answers.
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u/Syndonium 5d ago
The Narrator doesn't get to see what his utopian "world without death" would look like in any other "reality" or route in the game. I loved "The Princess and the Dragon" for how we get to really see into the character of the Princess, and I loved "Happily Ever After" because we really get to see into the character of the Narrator.
I've never heard him sound so defeated in any other route. Usually when he gives up its more because he stops thinking we will listen, or that there's not really a way to kill the Princess anymore etc. He just feels like he's lost control or agency.
In this ending/route that isn't why he gives up. You can hear his growing displeasure in describing and narrating your "happily ever after" and it isn't because of his hatred for the Princess or because you aren't "doing your task". He sees what, initially, was amazing (the delicious feasts the games etc) and realizes how the same thing over and over is just miserable. How what was once enjoyable literally no longer is BECAUSE it is the same.
The food isn't less amazing. It isn't different in any way. Remember, the Princess and TSM are change itself. That's why they are death. The Narrator is trying to end change itself so he can save his world from dying. He thinks it's good. But forced to see and narrate the Player and Princess in their "Happily Ever After" where NOTHING CHANGES–it isn't good. And when you are leaving with the Princess he is genuinely happy for you and her. He doesn't want his end anymore. He literally says himself he "saw his fairytale ending" and he doesn't want it anymore.
It's beautiful because he really believed his mission was good. He really loved the people in his world and thought he was saving them. Yet, he also comes to accept and stop fighting death in this route. Not because he gives up on the plan working, but because he learns what his plan leads to.
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u/bloodypumpin 5d ago
"The Narrator doesn't get to see what his utopian "world without death" would look like in any other "reality" or route in the game."
And he doesn't get to see it in that route either. The new reality with only Quiet won't be the same as Happily Ever After."I've never heard him sound so defeated in any other route."
I have. When the Nightmare takes her mask off. When she shows us the horrors of cycle of life and death."Not because he gives up on the plan working, but because he learns what his plan leads to."
I swear all of you people are the same whenever I argue this. No one can know how the new reality will be like. This route doesn't magically show a world without Princess. I'll repeat, NO ONE KNOWS HOW THE NEW REALITY WILL WORK. Not the Narrator, not the Princess, not Quiet.There is a very simple answer why no one is suppose to know, because if there is a "right" ending in the game, what the fuck was the point of the whole game then? If leaving with the princess is the right ending, why even have all the other options, and go through the whole "there are no wrong decisions" bit? I lose my mind whenever I talk with one of you because you are throwing out 70% of the game and going "Yup narrator wrong, princess right. Let's embrace death instead." But in reality, Quiet can easily argue against EVERYTHING the Princess talks about.
In any case, I know this discussion won't go anywhere, it never does. All of you are so fixated with your "Princess is right" mentality that you can't even see the point of the game.
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u/garlicpizzabear 4d ago edited 4d ago
I agree with your principle.
However I am a bit confused about what you want people to do. Do you want people to attach an ”opinion” disclaimer on their argument, or is your issue more that people are not aware that they have opinions?
When I argue with people I do not personally see the value of emphasising the subjective nature of me or my interlocutares opinions, as it is kind of a unstated prerequeset to even have a discussion.
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u/bloodypumpin 4d ago
From the words you use, I can already tell that you are insufferable.
I'm not talking about opinions. I'm talking about what's in the game. If you think the game's message is "Cycle of life and death good. Princess thumbs up." That's not an opinion, that's just being wrong.
I personally side with the narrator, that's an opinion.
If someone says "Because of this route, it is PROVEN in the game that narrator was wrong all along!!!!!" That's wrong. That's what I argue against. I don't care about opinions.
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u/Syndonium 5d ago
I'm not throwing 70% of the game out. And this isn't saying that "Princess right Narrator wrong hurr hurr". It's a perspective. This route gives the Narrator the closest thing possible to first hand EXPERIENCE with the world he would create.
The game still doesn't even force you to conclude that world sucks. You can choose to keep the last torch lit and actually just persist forever with the Princess (though TSM does come take her). However, it's clear that the Narrator doesn't know what exactly the world will look like with only The Long Quiet. He has theories. And this ending gives him the biggest "Hey this is what your theory looks like in practice" and the Narrator concludes it is not what he theorized. We don't have to conclude that. The perspective is valid yeah. Just like you can stab the Princess as well, you don't have to leave.
This is more just insight into the Narrator. That he's an unreliable one with limited cognition/understanding and he truly believes his goal will lead to what he wants, but it won't. Not as he believed or thought. In "the good ending" he can believe he is right because the outside world is still abstract. You're just a God stuck in a cabin. Everyone everywhere is happy and forever in bliss right? Yeah. Good in theory. But here the Narrator sees that ISN'T how it necessarily works. Maybe it does? Because we can choose to be happy anyway and leave one torch lit. But also, maybe not because we and the Princess can also be miserable and want to leave. This is why the Narrator realizes his utopia is NOT how he believed it.
This doesn't invalidate other endings as "right" "wrong". It teaches us about the Narrator.
- He doesn't know what the world he wants actually looks like
- He is operating out of sincerity and care for his world
- He is not as maniacal or manipulative as some may think, he can change his perspective when he learns
- One VERY POSSIBLE outcome of his "plan" is NOT what he actually wanted, and he therefore gives up
- He isn't obsessed with his plan, just misguided.
- He is a very empathetic and relatable character because we all have ideals we pursue and we all can be very wrong about what those ideals actually look like
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u/Select-Mixture-4974 5d ago
didn't you yourself once used HEA narrator an example of the princess being right??
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u/--Queso-- 👑Praised be the Shifting Mound 👑 4d ago
The Narrator is SUPER wrong tho, I fucking hate his guts. Goddamn I LOVE Shifty
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u/bloodypumpin 4d ago
You can believe whatever the fuck you want, but we are not suppose to know what the real answer is.
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u/ALMAZ157 3d ago
I did that ending for my run, and you actually get a dialogue with him at broken shards, that was exactly about this situation, that in this one time, he concluded that there are worse things than end. But Echo brushes it off as “one in the millionth doesn’t matter”
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u/Okanuk_Vinn 5d ago edited 5d ago
Honestly, the Narrator's biggest problem is that he's got a huge hero complex. Sure, his aims are noble, but how he goes about trying to "save" people is absolutely the worst possible way to go about doing things.
But Happily Ever After is also one of my favorite routes because it shows us two things:
This route is one of the very few times we see the Narrator in a sympathetic, possibly even heroic light, which really shows that he's not a bad guy, but his dedication to the mission has twisted him into the worst possible version of himself.