stpsideblog

[stpsideblog]

Thinking about how the narrator is his own thesis.

He is not a whole person as he is, just the fading echo of one already dead. And while you don't know why for most of the story, you can tell, I think, that he's incomplete, from a very early stage.

Incomplete in his inability to change. He has one script, one goal, one thought infinitely unfurling in his mind, and there's a hollowness to it.

Do I think he's a true glimpse into the world he's seeking? Not exactly. He's only one thing, and one thing unnaturally incapable of change is different from a universe that doesn't know what it means to change.

But I think the closest thing we get in game to grasping what may happen in a world without change is the narrator himself.

[stpsideblog]

Also everyone always talks about how The Princess changes to our perception of her, but not about how we change to fit hers.

When we kill her mercilessly, she becomes The Spectre, but we're joined by The Cold at the same time. To us she is dead, and to her we are unfeeling.

When we give up on killing her, she becomes The Tower, and we are joined by The Broken at the same time. To us she is a goddess, and to her we are weak and shattered.

When we mutually kill each other, she becomes The Adversary, and we are joined by The Stubborn. To us she is a powerful adversary, and to her we are..pretty much the same.

When we try to save her and warn her of our betrayal, she becomes The Damsel and we are joined by The Smitten. To us she is a kind victim we need to help, and to her we are somebody who cares for and wants to protect her.

I could go on like this. But the point is that she is not the only one shaped by our dance.

For each action we take, The Shifting Mound gains a new shard of herself, and we gain a shard of ourselves. None "complete people", technically, as they're all aspects of a larger entity, but still meaningful and alive.

[stpsideblog]

I've seen some people talk about The Damsel and The Deconstructed Damsel as if they're the same, with the claim being that the only difference is that in the normal Damsel ending you don't notice how hollow she is. But I don't think this is. True.

Yes, both The Damsel and The Deconstructed Damsel are smoothed over and formed into the ideal of a love interest who wants nothing more than to escape with you and make you happy.

But it's the act of doubting her personhood that takes it away.

The Deconstructed Damsel isn't a glitch showing what the Damsel really is beneath it all, she's a changed version of the Damsel shifted, as any other of The Shifting Mound's parts, by your perception of her.

When you start to ask about her agency, that is when she loses it. When you start to view her as inhuman and wrong, that is when she becomes those things. When you believe you are the only person here, then it becomes true.

When you deconstruct The Damsel, you aren't revealing truths about her, you're changing her through your own doubt in her identity.