HARDCORE STANLEY NSFW!!!!!! NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.

Happy 11th anniversary to The Stanley Parable!!

Oh yeah. Day 17 of Paratober, Birthday

Narrator’s supposed to be doing jazz hands so present it looks like he’s doing that lol

god he so cute, his whole family is so cute actually

[ID: A Mairimashita! Iruma-kin extra titled "Balam Sukima." It shows a young Balam, captioned "living at the dorms". Narration explains it's "the day Balam left home" as Balam's parents speak to him.

"You can come home whenever you feel lonely." Balam: "Okay." "Make sure you eat all your meals." "Don't just go chasing after creatures." "Okay." "Even if you're angry, don't ever hit anyone with all your strength." "Okay?"

Balam closes his eyes, starting to look frustrated, as they continue. "When you touch someone, do it gently, don't break any arms." "That's right, stop before they pass out." Balam is silent, and they exclaim, "Shichiro! Where's your answer?" Narration states, "They worry so much they still call twice a week." The last panel shows one parent touching his cheeks and a bright glow emanating as Balam, still a bit annoyed, says, "Okay." End ID] ID by @princess-of-purple-prose

it's not going to let me rest until i write about it, so tonight I want to talk about the TSP2 Expo in Ultra Deluxe, and why it's a thing at all, and what it means about the Narrator, and how deeply self-conscious he is.

The Expo is, and I say this without exaggeration, the Narrator's deep, desperate need to respond to the audience and the reviews from the Skip button ending. They say he's not funny; he makes "a whole lot of gags". He's still reactionary, he makes all of this in response to (and in my mind, in the downtime during) the Skip button, and it's the first thing you can find right after the game resets from the Skip button.

He's not over it.

TSPUD in general is in a big way about the relationship between an artist and their audience. (i swear on my life i've written those words before...) it's about how a creator can and does create for themself but does, on a real level, yearn for an audience to understand and appreciate, while also being scared that people wont get it, and also being scared about "needing" a reaction to begin with.

Create for oneself, sure, but you still want people to like the thing you made. You want them to experience it, this thing you put so much time into. You want them to laugh at the jokes, that's why the jokes are there, and you hope they hit right.

Elements of that have always been in TSP but they're at the forefront of TSPUD and especially all the Expo stuff. Even while the Narrator, in Skip button rants, berates the audience for wanting jokes and gags and bits to distract them, he immediately wants to please. He's yearning to be understood, and he thinks if he can just give the people what they want, then surely they'll find the meaning in his work.

And then there's that darn Bucket. And while the Bucket feels like, at times, a stand-in for the Narrator or a way for him to project, it's easier for me to see him trying to frame Stanley's bond to the Bucket as a parallel to his bond to Stanley, instead of the other way around.

Stanley is the thing that is here in this world and story to comfort the Narrator. But Stanley is also the thing that can crush the Narrator's spirit.

In the Press Conference Ending, Stanley's bold new approach to story-telling gets him lauded, gets him praise. In the Bucket version, he tries to make the Bucket understand him through other people understanding him, and it fails. It scans as the Narrator desperately trying to reach out to Stanley, even as he tries to get adoration from an audience. Stanley only has eyes for the Bucket in the Apartment ending; in the end, the Narrator only has Stanley for company, and he on some level wants Stanley to appreciate him. He asks for feedback in the Games ending. And while nothing will ever really make him happy, there, he still asks.

In the end, Stanley's the only audience that really matters. He wants Stanley to like the things he makes.

"Why did I create Stanley? Was I lonely?"

He was. And the audience he's looking for isn't one he can interact with.

TSPUD is about a creator's relationship with an audience, hoping they will play the game, and like the game, and understand the game, so that they'll keep playing. And the game "ends" when the creator says "okay. I think I'm ready to try something new. for real this time!"

And then he gets pulled right back, because the audience response is just so uproarious. How can you move on from a thing that did, on some level, garner you success? Shouldn't you just stick with the thing that made you successful? But how do you make it better, when it felt like a complete work?

When do you get to move on? When do you make that choice? Will the audience understand? Will they follow you? Or do they just want more of the same?

The answer isn't simple.

Percy held on to life and to the small part of his soul BECAUSE HE THOUGHT ABOUT ANNABETH

Percy gave up immortality BECAUSE HE THOUGHT ABOUT ANNABETH

Percy hesitated entering Camp Jupiter but decided to give up on invincibility (Curse of Achilles) even though that's what's been keeping him alive for 2 WHOLE MONTHS BECAUSE HE THOUGHT ABOUT ANNABETH

Hat Kid copying people she knows (also known as "echolalia")

[Maybe volume warning]

new obsession acquired

Sentient Mystery Shack, who is really biased towards Stan, so when Ford tells Stan he has to give it back after the summer it’s on sight.

Ford keeps tripping over nothing, nothing is where it's supposed to be and somehow he keeps running into closets when he tries to go outside.

But the worst part, the WORST part is that Ford's lightbulb just won't. Work. No matter what he does it keeps flickering and exploding.

Ford is spiraling. 

There is no reason why it shoudln’t work. All his trial runs work perfectly. He’s already checked the Shacks wiring three times and relearned this dimensions science from the ground up. 

Nothing works.

The Rift? Bill? The impending apocalypse? Eating? Sleep? Who cares about that. 

WHY. WONT. THE. LIGHTBULB. WORK???

It doesn’t help that Stan keeps laughing at him.

“Then you do it!” Ford eventually snaps at Stan.

Stan shrugs and with a little song under his breath screws his own lightbulb it. It works perfectly.

Stanford screams.

ANWISHKAJSOSMSKSMSKSMKAMSKS

I’ve finally finished this stupid thing !!!!!! that I love a lot!!!!! rahh swap aus my beloved

(what else do ppl caption here)

i guess I’ll also add other stuff below:

ft. eloquent countenance swap au designs w/ separate ver:

I’ll also add this here below cause why not!!!

elevator hitch swap au real tbh

there’s also this thing I did that I don’t see myself fully fleshing out so yeah!!!

oop